Quest for the Broken Star
by Mario and BFDI Bros
Summary: After the events of The Chosen One, Gia, Ludo, and Star set out to find Toffee and regain the missing shard of the wand star. Things are a bit turned around-Star has no magic, and Ludo has his own wand now! And how does Marco feel about this all? Will he side with Toffee to get revenge on Star? Cover made by me!
1. Chapter 1 - The Journey Begins

**Hello to everyone coming from The Chosen One! If you're not, You will probably be very confused, so I suggest you start on that one. Everyone else, enjoy the extension of TCO!**

 **Oh, and about the cover... I'm not exactly an artist, if you know what I mean. I think my Star fail pretty badly, but hey, at least we have a cover!**

 **We have three new followers/favoriters: heliomant (who already followed and has now decided to favorite), GrizzledEngi, and DeXidious. Thank you!**

 **I'd also like to mention that TCO hit an all-time high on views yesterday when I posted the last chapter: 580. That'sl almost 160 more than any other day! Glad to know you're all eager to keep reading!**

 **Thank you reviewers: robertkellett, Star's Keyblade4114, and Oracle6044.**

 **Robertkellett, your input is always greatly appreciated. :)**

 **Responses to Reviewers**

 **Oracle6044 - Glad to know you're eager for the sequel! And yeah, Star's relationship with MarcO is pretty messed up.**

 **Star's Keyblade4114 (response to both) - That's my job; to surprise you! :D**

 **Aaaaand, here we go!**

* * *

A knock came on the door. A puzzled look crossed Marco Diaz's face. "Who could that be?" He got up off the couch and peered through the door's peephole. He saw a reptilian face. "AH!" He stepped away from the door.

The reptile outside sighed, busting open the door with a spell.

Marco backed into a fighting stance. "You don't want me, Toffee. Star and I are done."

"Exactly why I came."

There was silence.

"You hate her, don't you," Toffee remarked. It was less of a question and more of a statement.

Marco's face fell. "Yeah…"

"So do I."

Marco realized what was going on. "No!"

"No?" Toffee was surprised.

"I'm not sinking down to your level just because of what Star did to me. You're pure EVIL. And I'm not!"

Toffee looked uncomfortable. "You are entitled to your own opinion."

"I'll seek my revenge on Star in a more humane way. But… I won't stop you. At least, not yet. Go."

Toffee, a bit flustered, left; he was not used to plans not going his way.

"Good riddance!" Marco exclaimed. "Won't anyone just leave me alone?!"

He sat on the couch for five more minutes, growing restless. "I've gotta do something!"

He picked up the dimensional scissors Star had left and exited the house, not bothering to take the house keys. He took a few steps outside then cut a portal. He stepped inside.

The car rolled into the garage, and the Diazes got out. As Rafael walked in the door, he shouted, "Star, Marco, we're home! Star? Marco?" The parents saw their son's phone on the coffee table.

"Where are they?" his wife asked.

They searched the house but found no one, only dozens of ripped pictures that used to have both Star and Marco in them.

* * *

"So, I was just taking a walk in the forest. I did it a lot since it helped me cope with my dad… dying." A single tear formed in Gia's left eye. "But I was just walking through and all of a sudden black smoke surrounded me. And… well, I thought I had , I woke up in front of the castle. You guys came a few minutes later. It was like my body had a mind of its own. It was like a dream. I could see and hear and smell everything, but it was like I was outside my body, watching myself. It was awful, seeing myself doing all those things." Gia shuddered. "I'm glad those puppies are okay."

Star put an arm around her. "It wasn't your fault." Her mind drifted back to the note she had left Marco, which had contained those words. She sighed. I just wish we could be normal again. But it really was her fault, wasn't it? When she had said, "I'm not having you ruin my life again," she really meant, "I ruin my life every time I'm around you," didn't she? But things were okay, now, so she had to forget about Marco and move on. Plus, she convinced herself, Gia needs my help more than Marco. She lost her father and was physically manipulated by Toffee. She squeezed the girl toward her hip. "It's okay. We'll get you back to your mom."

"After we find the shard. I'm not letting that lizard do to anyone else what he did to me."

"Alright, lead the way."

While Gia tried to sense Toffee, Ludo and Star chatted, the latter speaking first: "So, how did you get to Earth, Ludo?"

"Funny story. So, right after you went through the portal, I saw Gia toss an onion into a bush. 'What would she need an onion for?' I thought. Only one thing came to mind: fake crying. That made me really suspicious, because why would she want us to think that she was crying? Well, to make us believe her story. And that meant her story was fake.

"So I snuck into the Mewni Castle-by the way, you need to upgrade security at that place-and I managed to steal some dimensional scissors. Then I used them to get to Earth-"

Star gasped. "Do you… still have those?"

He took them out. "Yeah, why?"

"I… left mine at the house."

"Well, we have some, so we're fine."

"Yeah, yeah," said Star distractedly. She was thinking. If Marco found those scissors, who knew what he'd do?

Ludo continued, "And that's when I saw Gia eating your dogs. I knocked on the door and she let me in after I told her I was a friend of yours. You know what happened from there."

Star nodded, shifting her gaze to Gia. The said girl turned, pointing toward where the sun would soon set. "He's over there. But not in this dimension."

Indexus popped out of the pocketbook. "Do you need a map?"

"Yeah, thanks," Star said, taking out the book. It expanded, then Indexus flipped the pages to one in the very back. Indexus unfolded it, stretching it to a five foot long map. The title read: The Interdimensional Map. Star studied it, finally finding Earth. "Huh. What direction is that?" She pointed to where Gia had.

"West," Ludo stated.

"How do you know?"

"The sun sets in the west in every dimension."

"Okay, cool." She planned her finger on Earth then moved it west. "Let's see… Venezala. Never been there before." Still looking at the map, Star distractedly took Ludo's scissors and made a portal.

"Aren't you supposed to focus when you cut a portal?" Gia mentioned. "Especially if you've never been there before."

"Yeah, whatever, it'll be fine. Come on!" She leaped through the portal.

"Wait!" Ludo called. "Star, you forgot your… ugh. Guess I'm carrying it. I don't know what Star'd do without us."

Gia was lost in thought. "She certainly depends on her friends."

Ludo smiled. "Then let's be there for her!"

The two grinned, then stepped through the portal.

* * *

Toffee stood in a dark room. The figure seated upon the throne in front of him was completely concealed. The figure spoke: "You do not have the wand, do you?"

"N-no, sir," the usually calm and composed Toffee stuttered.

A hand struck Toffee's face. "You good-for-nothing lizard!"

Toffee stood there, stolid.

"And what about the boy?"

"I couldn't recruit him. But he will still hinder Star, and therefore Ludo."

"You really are good for nothing, aren't you?"

"I may be able to recruit some… other reinforcements."

"All right, whatever gets the wand away from Ludo."

"And the family heirloom is still the reward?"

The figure sighed in exasperation. "You won't do it for me otherwise, will you?"

Toffee smiled. "Of course not."

"Then the heirloom it is."

Toffee cut a portal to Venezala and stepped inside, grumbling, "What does a lizard have to do to get a magical artifact?"

* * *

 **A/N: There's chapter 1! Not much action, per say. I wanted to set up Star, Gia, and Ludo just kind of hanging out and being normal friends, and also tie up some loose ends I left on TCO. Until next time!**


	2. Chapter 2 - Tom and Toffee

**Alright, here's chapter 2! This might be the first time I've written two chapters in one day. I'm just excited as you guys are!**

 **Thank you new followers/favoriters: robertkellett, s.b13flystarfan, and black649! Also thanks to followers and favoriters coming from The Chosen One!**

 **Star's Keyblade4114 - Hmm, that is an** ** _interesting_** **speculation. Can't say whether it's right or not! :)**

 **robertkellett - No Heckapoo, sorry. However, Marco** ** _will_** **talk to someone (read this chapter). It's one of the ideas you PM'ed me. :D Glad you liked my move with Marco.**

 **Oracle6044 - Once again, no Heckapoo, at least, not yet. Glad you like the story!**

 **A note: Marcapoo will not happen in this story, in case you are wondering. At this point, Marco isn't exactly looking for a girlfriend. I mean, I like to say "anything can happen within the pages of a book," but I really don't think this ship will happen.**

 **Anyway, here we go again!**

* * *

Marco didn't know where the portal would take him, but he knew it would take him where he needed to go. The scene he saw was hellish, with a red sky and black, scorched turf that crunched under his feet. Lakes of lava bubbled, and mutant fish swam in them. The sun was red-orange, and Marco could feel it searing every uncovered part of his skin. In the distance, a blood-red castle dominated the landscape. He could see an airborne phoenix in the distance. The Underworld. As the phoenix neared Marco, he realized that this was no majestic bird; it was as hellish as the fish in the lake. Its wings and legs were bent at odd angles, and it flew jerkily. Its feathers were a disarray of colors ranging from blood red to gold. The phoenix approached him still, its eye trained on him. Marco really didn't care anymore. He put his arms out wide, letting the bird swoop down and grab him in its talons.

Marco flew over the landscape. It would be a beautiful experience on Earth, but here, it was only scorched land with the occasional lava pool or lump of black turf. The one thing standing out from the landscape was getting closer. When they finally reached the castle, the bird dropped Marco in a courtyard inside the gates and flew off. Two monsters opened the huge iron doors in front of him. There was a monster behind him carrying a spear to prod him with, but Marco didn't need any prodding. He walked through the doors calmly. They were slammed behind him. Another demon with a spear prodded him onward. "Hey, just tell me where to go and I'll go."

The demon, which was red and had one eye and two tails, looked confused. He-or she, maybe-shrugged and took the lead. He was lead through almost a dozen hallways before finally reaching the throne room.

Tom lounged on his throne, his feet dangling over one of its arms and his head rested on the other. Upon seeing Marco, he sat up straight, his eyes turning to red. "You…" he said sinisterly.

"Look," Marco said casually, "I know you tried to kill me and everything last time I saw you, but hear me out. Star ditched me, just like she did you. I feel you, Tom, I really do."

The half-demon became relaxed. "Really?"

"Yeah," the boy said with a sad smile.

"Well, it's nice to know there's someone else out there."

"Same."

"Come sit on my dad's throne." He pointed to a larger version of his own. The other one was more of a fifty-foot long couch. This was obviously his mother's.

Marco complied. "This is kinda cool," he commented. "I feel like a king…" _of Mewni_ , he thought. _It'll never happen now_. "I really did like Star… until she abandoned me."

Tom sighed, then smiled. "I still love little Starship."

"I'm not so sure right now, but deep inside, maybe I do. And that's the worst part."

"It is."

There was some silence. Marco broke it: "Hey, I don't hold anything against you for inviting Star to the Blood Moon Ball."

"And I don't hold anything against you for coming after her. Once she's got your heart… she's got it completely. And then she breaks it."

"I never realized she could cause me so much pain." Marco thought back to the day he'd met her when she'd found him at the convenience store. _I should have let her go. My life would've been so much simpler._

Seemingly reading his mind, Tom said, "I wish I'd never met her at the Silver Bell Ball. But I fell for her. And she let me fall face-first into the ground. And then stomped on me."

Marco nodded, a faraway look in his eyes. "About the Blood Moon thing… what happens if you break it?"

"I see why you'd want to. It's never happened before, and I'm not sure it's possible, but we can see. Come on."

The two left their thrones and headed down the stairs to the library.

* * *

"He's here. I'm sure of it."

The trio stood in the lush greenery. Everything was such a bright shade of green that it was almost unnatural. Vibrant flowers sprouted from bushes. Purple apples hung from low trees. Star reached up to pick one, but was stopped by Ludo. "Wait! That could be poisonous. It would be safer if I made some food."

"If you knew _how_ to, that is," Gia remarked distractedly.

"Yes, yes, there is that small problem." Ludo reached inside his robe, pulling out the items Star had given him at their parting. "I guess we're having orange chicken and rice today."

"What's that?" Gia asked, peering through the underbrush.

"Oh, yeah. You've never been to Earth. Trust me, it amazing!" Star said excitedly.

"Yeah, tell that to the guy who ate it three days straight."

Star raised an eyebrow. "Three? I thought it was-"

"Sh!" Gia interrupted. She motioned for the two to come. They looked through the bushes. Beyond them was a large square of much duller land set off with a high stone wall. The tops of huts peeked out from the top of the wall. But whose were they? Then Star saw a dozen Toffees marching out from the edge of forest adjacent to the trio's. They wore black clothes and carried spears. They passed only thirty feet away. Reaching the entrance to the city, an opening in the wall, the group filed in then broke off to go to their respective huts. Star tapped her chin. Who were these lizards and-more importantly-who were they fighting?

As the opening started to close by way of some mechanism, another reptile approached the wall and snuck in just before the opening closed. Star saw the star shard glinting in his arm. But they couldn't attack now, not in a city of his own kind. And not with Ludo's small repertoire of spells. He really needed to practice those.

"I say we set up camp a bit farther back, and we'll have someone keep watch on the city," Star proposed.

"Is that… a _plan_?" Ludo questioned.

"Hey, we all have our moments. So, Gia…"

"I'll keep watch," the girl responded.

"Thanks. And Ludo, you'll be practicing spells with me."

Ludo was overcome with excitement. "Let's start!"

* * *

Inside the Venezalan city, Toffee approached a hut. He ducked through the opening, finding two similar lizards sitting on the floor. The one on the left stood angrily. "You abandoned the tribe, brother! I do not want to talk with you. Leave the city!"

Toffee's only response was dumping a sack of hundreds of gold coins onto the floor. The eyes of the lizard on the right widened. "We're listening."

"I need you to work with me to take the wand from that pesky Ludo."

"We get all of this?" the right one questioned.

"Yes."

"And the wand," the one on the left demanded.

"Of course," Toffee lied.

The one on the left still looked reluctant, but the right one extended his hand. "It's a deal." Toffee shook it.

"But how will we get out of the city?" the left one opposed.

Toffee took out his dimensional scissors and cut a portal.

The lizard on the right stepped through.

"Go on," Toffee coaxed to the other.

"Wait." He dug a hole, shoved the coins in, and refilled it. "And I want you going first do that you don't steal the money back."

"As you wish." Toffee walked backward through the portal.

"All right," the remaining lizard grumbled, "can't have Brother getting the wand to himself."

Thinking thus, he stepped into the portal.

* * *

 **A/N: Not much to say, here. I wanted to clear up, though, two lines up he is not talking about Toffee, but the other lizard he was in the room with. Enjoy the story!**


	3. Chapter 3 - Venezala and the Blood Moon

**Hey, guys! This one took a while to come out - homework is basically my life right now. Thankfully, the homework should be lessening, giving me more time to right. This one starts out pretty light-hearted, but things start getting complicated. Anyway, to reviews!**

 **Guest: Not sure I understand, but Star x Ludo will not go any farther than friendship in this story, I promise.**

 **Star's Keybalde4114: Well, here you go!**

 **s.b13flystarfan: Glad you enjoyed it!**

 **robertkellet: Thank you!**

 **And... here we go!**

* * *

Ludo and Star sat in front of the open book. "Indexus, let's start with a food-generating spell," Star suggested.

Indexus flipped the pages to the middle of the book. "You know, your great grandmother As was quite the cook." He inspected the page. "Hmm. How about... oooh, what is this delicacy? Orange chicken? What is that?"

"No!" Ludo exclaimed. "Not that!"

"Well… alright, how about corn?"

Ludo's eyes widened in delight. "C-corn?"

"This one's quite simple. _Zia mayza_ _butta_ , assuming you want butter."

" _Zia mayza butta, zia mayza butta, Gia mayza butta!"_

Two cobs of buttered corn appeared. "Wait," said Star, "on that last one, did you say Gia?"

"Ummm… maybe?"

A giant yellow corn with a face and wearing Gia's clothes waddled over to them on stubby legs. "Thanks a lot."

Indexus cringed. "Luckily, there's a counterspell for that."

* * *

Tom and Marco descended flight after flight of stairs.

"Is there any faster way?"

"There was an elevator, but we're already halfway there."

"Argh!"

They descended seemingly hundreds more flights of stairs before they left them, walking into a hallway. The hallway felt three times as long to Marco's burning legs. They walked through a door on their left and were met with thousands of books upon hundreds of shelves. Some books were much too high to reach, nearing the fifty-foot high domed ceiling, from which a giant chandelier hung, which lit the room.. The library was the length of a football field in both directions. There was almost no bare wall space, but the little wall that did show through was amber. The bookshelves did not just line the walls, oh no, there were far too many books for that. The room was divided into seven aisles between each row of bookshelves.

"Somewhere in here, we will find the answer," Tom stated.

"How will we ever find the right book?"

Tom raised his gaze to the high ceiling. "Control F: Blood Moon."

About one hundred of the books shone bright red upon Tom's demand.

"Wait, what?!" Marco exclaimed.

"Efficiency at its finest," Tom commented.

"So… now what?"

"Now we look through those hundred books."

"I've seen finer efficiency."

* * *

After a half an hour of attempts, Gia was finally a human again. She had endured being turned into a peach, bunch of grapes, broccoli, and a mule. She had quite the annoyed look on her face, but managed to smile and thank Ludo for turning her back. Then she sighed. "He's not here anymore. And we should probably leave before-" she gasped.

The ground turned red around her left leg. When she fell, Star saw the three-foot long wooden spear embedded in her calf. Behind her, three lizards approached, each with a spear in hand.

Star threw herself onto Gia's limp body. She couldn't be… dead, right? No one could die that fast from a leg wound! Right?! But so much was possible with magic. "Please!" Star's voice grew weak. "Please… leave her alone. We'll do anything, just don't hurt her! Or us." The tears came out.

How could the lizards kill two innocent girls, one crying over the other's body? They couldn't. And they already knew that, otherwise the first spear would have gone straight through the girl's heart. "Come with us," he commanded, "and consider yourselves lucky."

Star nodded.

The middle lizard pulled out the stake, licking it clean. "Are we going?"

"Gia's going to bleed to death before we get there!"

"All right," the middle lizard said distractedly, "then we shouldn't bother carrying her there."

Full of rage, Star tore a large leaf from a plant and wrapped it around Gia's wound. She tore slits and kept the makeshift bandage together as the lid of a chinese take-out box does. She cast a glance at the person she was addressing. "Ludo?"

"I'll get the head."

The six walked toward the city, Gia in Star's and Ludo's arms, and the two lizards who hadn't spoken with spears at the friends' backs.

"It's all my fault!" Star cried beside Gia's still limp body. The makeshift leaf-bandage had turned a gruesome shade of red. She was breathing, but for how much longer? Star should never have let her come. She was ten for Corn's sake! She should've known she'd get hurt! What would her parents think? They'd be worried sick-no, what would her _parent_ think? _She'd_ be worried sick. Because Gia didn't even have a father! What had Star done to her? She could be dead!

"Star, what could you have done?" Ludo assured.

"Shut up!"

Ludo recoiled as if he'd been struck.

"It _is_ all my fault! And not just Gia!" The pain that Gia felt in her leg was the same that Marco felt in his heart. And _she_ had inflicted it directly. "I really am an awful person."

"Star…" edginess was creeping into Ludo's voice.

"I said, shut up!"

Gia stirred, groaning.

Star's fire extinguished immediately, and she rushed to her side. "Gia, it'll be okay. Thank Corn, it'll be okay."

"Can't… feel… leg…"

"It's okay, Gia, it's okay."

"You can… stop… saying that."

"No, it's okay! It's okay!"

"You're… convincing… yourself."

Silence.

Gia tried to sit up to see her leg. "How… bad?"

"You're fine."

Seeing the red, she grimaced. "It's okay. I didn't have much of a life anyway."

"We're going to get you out of here alive."

"Okay, but… if I don't make it… it's not your fault… and I'll probably be in a better place."

The door opened. A lizard stepped inside, not one of the three who had captured them. "This is a breakout. Let's get the girl and go."

"Leave me," the girl said.

"No," Star said assertively.

"I'll slow you down."

"No, you won't. Ludo, point the wand at her and say " _Levitato_." It was a spell she'd glanced at in the book, and it was supposedly one of the easiest.

Ludo complied and rose Gia into the air.

"All right, now that you've got Gia, you don't need me to get her out."

"Well, um… no, I don't. What do you mean?"

"I'm staying."

"What?! We're going, Star. This might be our only chance."

"Go on without me."

"Of course not! Star, we're running out of time."

"No. The truth is, I am an awful person. I end up hurting every person who gets close to me. I don't want to hurt you. Go. You'll be better off without me.

Ludo was getting frantic. "We can go our separate ways, but come with us! Now!"

"Our escape route is closing," the lizard commented.

"Star, please…"

Star refused to move.

Ludo closed his eyes, tilting his head toward the floor. When he opened them, his eyes were completely blue. He crouched, spun once counter-clockwise, and shot a spell from his wand. The room was bathed in blue light. When Ludo's senses returned, Star was gone.

* * *

Marco, his head rested on his hand, looked at the cover of the book. It read _The Butterfly Bloodline from Queen Moon and Up_. He placed it on the stack of ten, which had three stacks of thirteen beside it. All fifty. And not a single thing about breaking the curse. Sleepily, he glanced over at Tom. "Anything?"

"No. This is the last one." A pause. "Wait! Right here: 'The only way to break the Blood Moon Binding is to… oh."

"What?!"

"To kill both of the subjects. Because if they are dead, they can't fall in love."

"Oh."

"I'm assuming that's not what you were thinking?"

"No."

"Let's go back up."

"Let's use the elevator this time, please!"

"Of course." _Should I tell him?_ debated Tom. _No. I won't do that to Starship._

So Tom held on to the secret as they ascended to ground level.

* * *

 **A/N: Next update: 5-7 days**


	4. Chapter 4 - Mocha

**Hey, guys! I am currently writing this stranded at a high school waiting for a bus back to my middle school. :P Anyway, reviews!**

 **Star's Keyblade4114: Thank you! Suspense is what I'm going for!**

 **robertkellett: We'll see how things go with Star...**

 **Okay... we're starting with the escape!**

* * *

"Star!" cried Ludo. "What have I done to her?!"

Frustratingly, the lizard maintained his composure. "I don't know. But we have to go _now_."

Ludo cast one last longing glance at their cell then hurried out, the floating, moaning Gia trailing behind him. The lizard led Ludo through a series of twisting hallways. They finally came to a halt, being faced with twenty other lizards in tight black clothes. Thankfully, they were unarmed, but they could do much with their bare fists. Ludo and the lizard sprinted the other way. Gia floated dangerously close to the lounge of other lizards, but the lounge were mystified and afraid to touch the bluish substance enclosing the girl. **(A/N: Lounge = group of lizards.)** This distraction was the only thing that allowed Ludo and his new friend to get a head start. Ludo quickly fell behind due to his short legs. Despite Ludo running as fast as possible, the lounge caught up with him. A hand swiped at his arm but couldn't grab on. A boot snagged his cloak, tripping him and sending him skidding against the it all, Ludo managed to keep a small corner of his brain concentrated on the _Levitato_ spell. The twenty-some lizards surrounded the helpless kappa, Gia floating above their heads.

Then Ludo felt a strong grip on his arm, pulling him back up to his feet. The reptile friend carried Ludo as they sprinted through the hallways.

They passed the cell again then took another turn. Three armed lizards blocked their way. Ludo glanced back, still seeing the lounge behind them. He got an idea. Hopefully it wouldn't hurt her too much. "Sorry Gia," he muttered. He swung around his wand, swinging Gia around and knocking down the three lizards like bowling pins. His friend kept running, stepping on an arm and a head.

"Twenty-five in the compound, that means one left. The leader," the lizard said.

"Wasn't that twenty-three?"

"You're looking at the twenty-fourth." The lizard was panting and sweating now.

They rounded several more corners. Finally, the light from outside showed through an opening.

From the left hallway, a large lizard stepped in front of the opening, blocking it off. He wore gold clothing and a crown of gold leaves. He towered a foot over the other lizard. He carried a carefully carved spear with a metal tip. He carried it easily; he was obviously adept at using it.

"Chief," Ludo's friend said.

"Soldier," the other boomed.

They stared each other down. Finally, the smaller lizard spoke again. "This is no betrayal to the tribe, Chief, I assure you."

"Then what is it?"

"An attempt to bring down Toffee, of course."

"Toffee? Our scouts say he's dead."

"He just bribed his two brothers to work for him. You didn't notice them being gone?"

"How do you know this?"

"I saw suspicious behavior, so I watched the whole thing."

The chief huffed in frustration. "Then how does breaking out his henchmen stop him?"

"Who said they work for him? Shall I tell you the story of each?"

A nod from the chief.

"This is Ludo. He once ruled a castle and had several minions. He used his power to try to steal Star Butterfly's wand. Toffee took everything from him. He was left in the wilderness without food or water.

"This girl is Gia. She was a normal Mewman girl until Toffee inhabited her body. When Toffee gained enough power, he took his normal form then threatened her life.

"The final girl, the Mewman princess… well, she died Toffee's poison just an hour ago. She was the leader of the group. Toffee killed her grandmother. What could these three possible want to do with Toffee besides kill him?"

There was a long silence. "That doesn't change the fact that you broke out prisoners. Now, you must suffer the consequences." He raised his spear.

In a flash, the smaller lizard took the wand from Ludo's grasp. Ludo and Gia fell to the ground. He turned the wand to the spear. A beam of warm yellow light shot out, slicing the spear in half. The half-spears landed on either side of him. His eyes turned a soft yellow, then he flicked the wand horizontally. A curved wall of yellow light flew toward the chief, and the room filled with blinding light.

Ludo felt a hand pulling on his arm. When he could see again, he was outside. He tried to keep up as the lizard sprinted toward the wall, Gia floating behind him in a yellow haze. The said lizard pulled out a remote and tapped its only button. The wall started to retract. Ludo's legs were short but rested, so he managed to keep up. They didn't stop until they reached the third layer of forest. They sat down to catch their breath. The lizard pulled a bandage role from his pocket and wrapped Gia's wound before resting.

"So… who are you, anyway?" Ludo asked after a minute.

"I am Mocha."

"Well, Mocha… thank you. A lot. Don't take this the wrong way, but… why did you do it?"

"Toffee needs to be ended. And… I think you three are the keys to his demise. Also… it was unfair."

"Toffee has a piece of the wand."

Mocha's eyes went wide. "That's not good at all."

"Will you help us?"

"I will. To the best of my ability."

"Thank you again."

There was a long pause broken by Gia, who sat up. "I feel dizzy."

"Yes, that's what it feels like when coming off of sleep serum," Mocha explained.

"Sleep serum! She's been under sleep serum this whole time? I thought it was from loss of blood!"

"No, this isn't too bad. She should be able to walk in a few days."

Ludo sighed in relief and disappointment. "But we need to find Star!"

"Either we leave Gia here, we wait with her, or we speed it up with magic."

The last option was appealing until Ludo remembered the corn-Gia.

"Not to mention we have no idea where she is or if she's even alive."

"I guess we wait, then."

* * *

When Star opened her eyes, she was in the all-too-familiar Underworld. Unpleasant memories of Tom surfaced in her mind. Among them was the way she entered every time. She really had no choice. Out here, she would die within the hour. She waited for a phoenix to take her away to Tom's castle.

Since it was Star, Tom hadn't sent any guards. She landed gracefully on the paved courtyard. She made her way to the throne room, remembering the path from all her previous visits. It was rather odd that the throne room was not at the front. She shrugged it off. Finally, she arrived.

"MARCO?!"

Marco lay against Tom's father's throne casually. "What do you want?" he demanded.

Seeing Marco on the throne of the king of the Underworld confused her. But even as confusion and anger and guilt washed through her, her cheeks turned bright red and she stuttered her next words. Tom and the thrones and the Underworld and everything went away except Marco Diaz. She'd thought she'd never see him again. And then, it was fine, but lately… well, Marco was not one of those people who was easily forgotten.

"M-M-Marco… look, I don't know why you're here, but…" she took a breath. "I was hoping… I'd like if… I mean, it would be best if… we should just start over. Put the past behind us. We could go on an adventure together, just like the old days." She smiled.

A moment passed. "No. I'm good staying right here. With the person you treated like dirt, and stomped on, and threw away like trash, just like you did to me!"

Star and Tom both gasped. There was fire in Star's eyes when she looked at Tom. "Is that what you told him?"

"No!" Tom protested, "I didn't say anything. He just assumed."

Star raised an eyebrow but let it slide.

"Wait!" Marco complained, "What are you talking about?"

"Should I tell the story?" Star asked, eager to disprove Marco's new friend.

He nodded, curious.

"It's best to start at when we met. The Silver Bell Ball.

"I had danced with more than twenty pristine, polite, perfect princess. They'd kiss my hand then twirl me around with a huge smile on their face. It was so fake. It was so… not me. Except for the last one, that is. The half-demon Thomas Lucitor. And trust me, I've never had a thing for demons, and I'm not saying I was attracted. In fact, we both hated each other at the beginning of the dance. But as it went on, I realized that he was at least being real with me. He wasn't like all those other ones. It really wasn't much, but… he was amazing by comparison. Then, a few months later, I was in this castle with Tom. We were playing video games and our family pet dogbird was yapping and flying in front of the screen. I just laughed, but when we lost the level Tom got so angry that he killed it in one quick ball of fire. He then turned on me, but I stopped him with a spell. You can imagine what happened when I came home without the pet who had been in the family for seven generations. Not to mention I loved him. I never quite got over that. I was always afraid he'd kill someone else that I love."

Marco looked over at Tom. Could he really have done that? He _had_ almost killed Marco. Why had he considered Tom his friend? Then again, why had he considered Star his friend? "Go," he said coldly.

"I have nowhere to go," Star protested.

"Tom, scissors please."

Tom complied, handing over dimensional scissors from a pants pocket.

Marco cut a portal and pointed at it. "Go."

"Marco…"

Marco kicked her in the behind, sending her reeling into the portal.

Marco sat back down with a discontented sigh. _It doesn't matter_ , he snapped at himself, _she's useless to my plans._ The only thing he wanted was the wand… and something he had read about in the books.

* * *

 **A/N: New plot line! Let's see how this goes...**

 **By the way, Mocha is up on the gallery page! (Link on chapter 3 and profile page.)**


	5. Chapter 5 - The Medallion

**Well, not much to say here. This update came earlier than expected with the three-day weekend (Monday was Labor Day in the U.S.), but the next chapters should be coming out about a week apart. However, I'll try my best to get them out quickly! Aaaaaand reviews:**

 **robertkellett (from chapter 4) - Yeah, I got excited about exploring the lizard race. Just for further reference, they are military-oriented because they have long-time enemies in their dimension. And Mocha is a bit of an anomaly, but the lizards are generally not evil. As for Marco wanting the wand… it's in this chapter!**

 **Oracle6044 - Thank you! I'm also Starco all the way, so it hurts me to write it, too. :) But I do because it makes things interesting.**

 **Star's Keyblade4114 - Ah, looks like we have some differing opinions on Marco. That's good! You'll see what he's planning right here.**

 **robertkellett (from the sneak peek) - Haha, I don't even watch Teen Titans, although I did see that reference once I wrote it. I like playing with fire. :D Fire is actually a really good symbol for a lot of things. I used it here, too. :)**

 **The entirety of this chapter explores the object Marco read about. Enjoy!**

* * *

Tom reached for the scissors back, but Marco refused. "Nope. I'm going on an adventure to find this artifact. You'll be lucky if you get your scissors back afterwards. He smirked, then cut a portal, stepping through.

 _What artifact is he trying to find?_ Tom asked himself. Marco stealing the scissors didn't really bother him; he could find another pair around somewhere. But an artifact… where could he have learned of that? In the library. Tom descended the elevator to B38. Once inside, Tom commanded to see the last book removed from the shelf. One at the far end glowed gold. He took it out and read the cover: _St. Muggle's Guide to the Ten Most Useful Magical Artifacts for Non-mages._ Tom opened to a dog-eared page. And there it was, the object Marco had left in search of: The Medallion of Magic _._

* * *

When Star landed hard on her rear, she saw a familiar sight: the Kingdom of Mewni. The towering sand-colored tiers topped with bringing purple domes brought back feelings of nostalgia. It was not pleasant. _I burned this place to the ground._ A tear stung her left eye, then another stung her right. She had caused _everything_. _Everything_ was her fault. She couldn't do anything right. All her friends hated her… except one. Pony Head. Whatever happened to her anyway? And why could she put up with Star? Maybe Star had changed drastically. Maybe Pony Head would hate Star if she saw her again. But it was better than facing her parents or Marco or Ludo and Gia. So she resolved to steal some dimensional scissors.

Star knew there was about a thirty-second gap between shifts when most of the security guards would not be able to see her. She spied from the bushes. About five minutes later, when the two guards at the entrance went inside, Star stealth-ran up to the door, catching it with her foot before it closed. She peered in, seeing the security guards leaving to go to their quarters or somewhere else. Once everyone was out of view, she sprinted through the throne room, trying to keep her footfalls light. She made it up the stairs without incident. She managed to creep through the hallways all the way to her old room. Every new space she encountered was silent. Too silent. She opened the door. Everything was as she had left it almost a month ago. That meant one thing in particular should be the same… She found what she was looking for: a pair of dimensional scissors hidden between the frame and mattress of her bed. She took them out and cut a portal to Uni.

A servant had heard something. She walked through the open door. A portal was closing in the room. Once it had closed, the old woman shrugged and closed the door behind her as she left.

* * *

The castle was quiet because no one was living it. Its normal inhabitants had been living with the Diazes, investigating, for over a week. They found nothing but were provided with something close to the truth: a murder had taken place. But by the looks of it, it had been Marco killing Star. It was something neither family wanted to believe.

* * *

Marco warped away to someplace. There were four inches of space between the floating purple grass and the yellow clay. Marco walked on top of the grass, making empty space very unsettling. Bright blue apple and red melon bushes hovered at eye level. Five to ten feet above Marco's head, the canopies of trees loomed over him, some bearing vegetables such as yellow cabbage and green carrots. He whole thing was eerie. There was nothing here besides the odd nature. A green-and-blue striped squirrel scampered out from a bush, running across the sky to another one. The sun was green, and Marco could look straight at it without hurting his eyes. Wait… there's another sun over there, a blue one. This one hurt Marco's eyes. Marco didn't know where he was going, but he set out east… or maybe west? He couldn't tell with the two suns. It didn't matter as long as he walked straight. After almost an hour, Marco was growing fatigued. What he didn't know was that his destination was directly above his head, about 100 feet up.

* * *

 **100 feet above Marco's head, Star opened a portal. She stepped through, her boots hitting the pastel blue and yellow tiles beneath her feet. They were pristine, as no one walked on them. The empty thrones in the throne room were not elaborate, as no one sat on them. The castle's only inhabitants floated five to fifteen feet off the ground. They were disembodied horse heads. They floated to and fro, not taking notice of her other than a glance; they recognized her from her previous visits. Star made her way through the familiar castle to Pony Head's room. It was empty. She sat there, waiting. She waited for about fifteen minutes, but it didn't bore her. If her life was unimportant, what was fifteen minutes wasted?**

Finally, Pony Head appeared through a portal. "Oh, hey girl! What are you doing here?"

"I came to ask you a question: what do you think of me as a person?"  
Pony Head paused. "Well, you're really fun to party with! Girl, you can party it up!"

"That's it?"  
Pony Head raised an eyebrow. "Whatcha mean?"

"Oh, nothing. Thanks, Pony Head."

"Star, is somethin' upsettin' you?"

"No, it's nothing, really."

But it was. Star was like fire: fun to look at, but when you actually got close… she burned, and she burned badly. Heck, her name called her a giant ball of fire. And no wonder she felt cast away like unwanted trash; that's what she was. First it was Ludo, zapping her away so he wouldn't have to deal with her anymore, then with Marco, literally kicking her out of the Underworld and not even considering mending their relationship. Her life was awful because _she_ was awful. No wonder her parents sent her away! No wonder Marco hated her! No wonder no one was looking for her! Because everyone hated her!

She was saved from tears when the room turned red and a deafening alarm blared.

* * *

*A few minutes earlier*

Marco finally looked up to see the castle. It only made sense that it was in the air; everything else floated. He muttered a Spanish curse about his stupidity. Then he cut a portal and stepped inside.

He emerged where he'd hoped he would, in one of the hallways of the castle. He wandered the hallways for a few minutes, then finally found a door guarded by two horse heads.

"Hey!" one shouted. "You are not authorized to enter!"

Marco knocked both against the wall with a kick. He pinned the horses against the wall with each hand, squeezing tighter and tighter. "The key," Marco demanded through gritted teeth.

The one in Marco's left hand nodded fearfully. Marco released his grip enough to let him speak. He gasped for air then said, "Under the doormat."

Marco gave him a weird look then kicked up the rug in front of the door. Under it lay a large key. _What the heck?_ He thought, picking up the key and inserting it into the door and turning it. The doors opened revealing hundreds of valuable relics and gold. But there was only one thing Marco had eyes for, the relic the book said would be here: The Medallion of Magic. He found it quickly, taking it from a pile of gold coins. This medallion was silver and had foreign markings... or maybe magical runes. It was held by a silver-link chain that Marco placed around his neck. The pressure it put on his chest made him feel powerful. He looked down at himself. His skinny jeans didn't seem quite right anymore and would get in the way of his kicks. He willed them to change, and they did. They became an off-black color and hung loose on his legs. His hoodie changed to a darker color without him even putting a thought into it. He drew up the hood. This felt right now.

One of the guards must have sounded the alarm because red lights and loud sirens filled the room. Marco sprinted out. The guards were gone. He kept running through the halls, hoping he could make it out.

* * *

Star stepped out of Pony Head's room and heard footsteps behind her. She turned around and saw the thief. They stared at each other. Something wasn't right. Marco's clothes, the way his hair moved as if there were a breeze even though they were indoors, the crazed, possessed look in his eyes. Star's eyes rested on the silver medallion hanging from Marco's neck. "Marco, you need to take that thing off. It's doing something to you."

For some reason, Marco was overcome with rage at the suggestion. He lashed out, freezing the girl in ice. When he regained control over himself, he sprinted past her toward the exit. He arrived in the throne room. He saw the exit, but it was blocked by forty horse heads, two of them (the King and Queen), being three times the size of him. Mentally kicking himself, he remembered he had dimensional scissors and used them to escape.

Back by Pony Head's room, Pony head had a hair dryer in her teeth pointed at Star, who was melting at a turtle's pace. "Hang on, girl! Only a few more hours."

* * *

Tom continued reading the page. _The Medallion of Magic gives magical abilities to anyone who wears it. It acts as a powerful wand, helping the user use magic without tiring. It can also heighten the abilities of a magic user. However, the Medallion of Magic is known to corrupt the soul of its user._

* * *

 **A/N: I don't know how you guys feel, but I'm actually starting to bore myself writing this. I don't know if I'm just getting tired out of writing or if my story is boring me, but I'll start trying to heat things up.**

 **Next time, Star reunites with the rest of the group… although reunite might not be the right word. Marco continues to become corrupted, and Toffee gets involved again.**

 **Next update: in a week**


	6. Chapter 6 - Seclusion

**Hey, everyone! We've hit 1000 views! We've also hit 6000 on The Chosen One. Two milestones in one! Anyway, I'm slowing down on this book, but I'll keep on it! This chapter is short, but I didn't want to make you wait longer. Review responses!**

 **robertkellett: Feeling bad for Star, that's good. I'm trying to play off those emotions as I continue to make the story interesting! And Marco's hate is starting to consume him.**

 **Star's Keyblade4114: It's a possibility. :)**

 **Inflixer: Hi, and welcome to the fic! I've talked to you, but glad to see you like it. However, I believe Star and Marco's tension does make sense based on The Chosen One. Make sure to read that first!**

 **RobLebron: Yeah, I just picked a city and went with it.**

 **Okay...**

* * *

If Star wanted to go someplace away from her friends, what better place than the world of her enemies? She couldn't stay here around Pony Head. Holding Pony Head's dimensional scissors, she cut a portal to Vesperia.

* * *

Toffee stood straight up in the middle of dinner, toppling his chair and making the dishes on the table clatter. "The boy has the Medallion," he gasped.

"The Medallion?"

The Medallion of Magic. I marked him when I used him as bait. He just cast a spell. He must have it."

"Whoa, whoa, slow down, brother. You're not making any sense."

"The boy Marco has an artifact that gives him magical abilities. But I need it to enhance mine. That was the plan."

"Brother, calm yourself."

"I'm taking you two to Agatenus right now."

"Agatenus?" both brothers questioned.

"You'll see."

* * *

Star emerged somewhere in the jungle. Some part of her wanted to curl up into a ball and stay here forever. Isolated, where no one would find her. But there was no easy-to-find food. Star had never even tried hunting, not without magic. The berries and purple apples and other fruits could all be poisonous. She wasn't trying to kill herself; that was selfish. She just wanted to get out of everyone's way. Her intent in coming here was to give herself over to the lizard tribe and live out the rest of her years in the dungeon. And she dreamed a bit. Maybe… maybe she could become a soldier for them. Because that's all she was good at: hurting others. The dream became a nightmare. A tear escaped her eye, now another. She saw the image of herself with the blade and Marco, bleeding on the ground. The image had haunted her ever since she left on the adventure. Every night, every time everything inevitably caught up to her, she would curl up into a ball and cry, shaking uncontrollably, hating herself and all she stood for. The overcast nights were best; the clouds blocked out the stars, which ruined the purity of the black sky. Wouldn't a pure black sky be beautiful? But she would ever see it, and no one ever would because of the stars. Even when the moon wasn't out, the starlight prevented Star from sleeping. If the stars would just go away, everything would be better and easier. If Star didn't exist, Marco would still be at home on Earth, happy, with his parents who loved him and were now so desperate to find him. Everyone would've given up by now except them. Even her parents were probably back home in Mewni by now. And yet Angie and Rafael searched and searched for the son they wouldn't find, who would be unrecognizable even if they did. All because of Star. Star had ruined him.

Star wanted to badly to apologize, to make it up, to do _something_. But an apology would mean nothing. Even if she found Marco and brought him home, he would be too far gone into the dark magic, as that was what it surely must be, by then. No one would be able to bring him back. Except maybe-no, she really was stupid, wasn't she? Marco was lost, and it was all her fault.

And couldn't Star take responsibility for so many other things? Gia's leg, letting Toffee get away… even all the way back to splitting the wand. All the way back to not admitting her feelings for Marco. She still loved him. And that's why she hadn't admitted: she was scared he would say no, and then Star would never be able to love anyone as much because he would always be there in her mind. Every hug, every kiss would feel wrong. But what did she have to complain? No one in the Eighty Worlds loved her anyway. No one ever would. So she walked. And walked. And walked. The trip that had taken fifteen minutes with Ludo and Gia seemed to take hours and hours and hours of trudging through the humid jungle, thorns tearing her skin, roots tripping her, branches slapping in her face. And she walked. And she walked. And she walked. Was she going in a circle? Or even the wrong direction? She was following the sun like they had the first time, but was is past noon or before it? Maybe the portal had opened miles from the camp. Maybe-

A clearing. She wasn't particularly excited or scared to see the lizards' tribal camp. This was her destiny. Seclusion. Punishment. A slow death. It was a well-deserved destiny. Following her destiny had never sounded so depressing. Oh, that was another thing to add to the list: depression.

Star's legs hadn't moved of her own will. They were doing what they were made to do: lead her to her destiny. She was at the wall before even thinking the thought. She stood there for a bit. Then the walls retracted and two guards stood ready to handcuff her. They wore confused expressions as she waited for them to handcuff her and take her prisoner, but didn't question it; their job was to take the prisoner, so that was what they were going to do. They led her to the compound, then inside and into a holding cell. It was the only one. That meant it was the same one as last time. Star's dried tears and Gia's blood still marked the floor. Every day for the rest of her life she would be reminded of everything that she had done, all the pain she had inflicted. She was thrown inside and locked in. Hopefully for the rest of her miserable life.

* * *

"Agatenus, these are my recruits."

Silence followed. "Well, aren't you going to introduce them?" the voice of the one called Agatenus boomed.

"Of-of course. These are my brothers, Taffy and Coffee."

"A loud laugh shook the room. Taffy, Toffee, and Coffee? Those are your names?"

Toffee looked mildly annoyed, but maintained complete composure. "Yes."

Agatenus finally stopped. "Anything else?"

"I believe to boy has the Medallion."

"You mean the Earthling?"

"Yes."

Agatenus sat back. "That is not good at all."

"So we should…"

"Get the girl."

"Star!?"

"Get her with us. She is still seclusive, right?"

"Yes."

"She'll do it to get the medallion away from the boy, won't she?"

"I… I suppose."

"Do it."

* * *

 **A/N: Okay... Toffee's brothers' name are revealed. Hahahaha... uh, yeah. And who is this Agatenus figure? Why is Toffee abiding by his orders? Wait and find out!**


	7. Chapter 7 - Recruited

**Hey, guys! I'm finally back with a new chapter, and it's my longest one so far! So sorry for the one-month hiatus. I have come to a decision: I AM continuing this story. I've started getting back into the fandom by reading other SVTFoE fanfics. But really, thank you to Oracle and RobLebron for your encouraging words! They really reminded me that people are still out there eagerly awaiting my next chapter. Also, the two guest users (or one under two names) who posted negative feedback, I would really love to hear from you about why you responded this way. This will help me improve the story and know that you're not just trolling me. :) That being said, I am leaving up the poll because I am curious to see the results. The poll will close on November 1. Please vote; it gives me good feedback. Also, if you ever have a suggestion or want to talk to me about anything, please shoot me a PM and I would be excited to talk to you about it! All right, reviews:**

 **Star's Keyblade4114 - Yup, he knows... or, at least, Toffee does. Star's not going in defenseless, though. This chapter will clear things up!**

 **robertkellett - Yea, Agatenus and Co. are trying to get Star on their side. In this chapter we'll see if they succeed. And about Star talking with Moon... let's just say it will eventually happen and that the AU Moon isn't exactly the same as the one that Battle for Mewni reveals to us. That will all come in time. :)**

 **The wait is over! Here's the chapter!**

* * *

WE HAVE THE GIRL. COME.

That was what Ludo saw when peering at the village. It was painted on a large board and leaned against the border wall.

"Gia! Gia, where are you?"

Silence.

"Here!"  
"Look."

No other explanation was necessary.

"We have to go for her," Ludo stated.

"No. Remember what happened last time?"

"Wait… how do you…"

"I was _awake_ , you stupid kappa."

Ludo remembered using her as a shield and battering ram. She had known about that? "S-sorry."

"That's a death trap at its most obvious. And Star won't even come with us. What, are you _trying_ to get us killed? Star's not even worth it."

"You don't know Star."

"Don't talk to _me_ about knowing who Star is," Gia fumed. "I spent the first seven years of my life with her!"

Ludo stood angrily but had no comeback.

"And then do you know what happened? My father died of cancer!" Tears stung the girl's eyes.

"Don't tell me about hardship! I had to survive in the wilderness with no food or water for months!"

"I was possessed by an evil lizard!"

"I was disowned as a child for being short!"

"I can barely talk to my mother because of her PTSD!"

"I had everything taken from me!"

" _I_ had everything taken from me!"

Silence.

"You ungrateful little girl," Ludo muttered. "If you refuse to search for Star, then I'll go alone."

As he stormed off, Gia muttered indifferently, "He's dead."

* * *

"Well done, Mocha."

"Pfft, call me Coffee, brother. I'd rather not be called by my fake name."

"It was nothing but a jest, brother."

"Very well."

"Where did you attach the tracker?"

"Behind her ear. She'll never find it."

"They had no suspicions of you?"

"No. They thought me a friend. I fabricated an excuse for leaving that they bought easily."

"Perfect. Be ready to return to them. How is Taffy?"

"He's at the compound, ready to intercept the wand. But. . . brother?"

"Yes?"

"Could we have underestimated Ludo's abilities?"

Toffee was unfazed. "Very possibly."

"Then why are we doing this?"

"Because I'm going to take any easy opportunities we have. I do not expect this to work, but if it does, we will be all the better for it. I will have the artifact. . ."

"And we will have the wand."

"Of course, brother. Of course."

* * *

Sounds came from the corridor, causing Star to lift her head up from between her knees. She had been curled up into a sad little ball of misery. Apprehension weighed upon her as she heard spells being uttered by a familiar voice. The blue spell color confirmed it. Soon, Ludo appeared amid a dozen unconscious lizard bodies, which littered the floor.

"I see you've been practicing," Star remarked dryly.

A huge smile spread across Ludo's face. "I DID IT!" He leaped up and down.

As he did so, a lizard emerged from the shadows and swatted at the wand. It clattered onto the floor and slid between the bars of Star's cell. She picked it up warily. Then she uttered a verbal component that required no magic. "Reveal."

The wand started to change. The blue was drowned in black, the green in purple. The wings fell away into a new shape. When the wand stopped changing, the handle and circle at the top were all black. The magical crystal was now broken into a thousand pieces across the wand. It seemed that if they were fit together, they would form a heart. The wings were dark purple and drooped. This was Star now. It was quite an accurate representation.

"That's all I needed," Star stated sorrowfully. She started to hand it back through the bars. Two hands reached for it. Four eyes stared into hers. Two belonged to a lizard, and the others to a kappa. As Star hesitated, the latter gained confusion in his eyes. That confusion slowly turned to disbelief.

"Star…" Ludo said, half scolding, half coaxing. But she only stared back with a cold glare.

Star's voice started as a whisper but rose to a shout: "Maybe this will teach you to leave me alone next time!"

She thrust the wand into the lizard's hand. She started reconsidering, but told herself, _I've done so much bad, what does it matter if I do more?_ The lizard took off down the hallway with the wand.

Meanwhile, tears stung Ludo's eyes. "I guess… I've lost even more than I thought," he choked out. But a determination set into his eyes. All that emotion combined into a spell. It zapped the lizard in the back. He slumped forward, either dead or unconscious. Ludo dashed over and retrieved the wand. He couldn't bring himself to look back at Star.

Back in her cell, Star thought about her actions. She had just outright betrayed her friend. A friend who was blindly loyal to her and trusted her so much. And she had just thrown him into the dirt and kicked him to be sure he stayed there. The dirt he had been in ever since his parents had abandoned him. The dirt that Star herself had picked him up from. It felt so long ago. Had she really done that? It seemed so unlike her. No, that was someone else, or rather, _she_ was someone else right now. _I'm not Star anymore. I'm more of a… a supernova. A dying Star. A Star that had been broken down and turned destructive. A Star that had lost everything it was and collapsed unto itself under the pressure._ And like a supernova, she was never going back to the Star she once was. **(A/N: Boom! Did you just have second thoughts about naming your OC Nova?)**

Star had been so enveloped in her thoughts that she didn't notice the presence outside her cell until keys rattled in its lock. It was the lizard from earlier. "Come with me," he commanded, opening the door.

"Will I like where I'm going?" Star questioned.

"No," the other responded coldly.

"Good."

Star was sure that she had never been to this dimension before. It was flat, barren desert as far as the eye could see in all directions. A red sun nearly twice the size of Earth's beat down on them. Star could almost feel her skin starting to burn as they walked. They finally came to a single spineless cactus-looking plant. The lizard reached out and placed his palm against the plant. The ground fell away beneath them in a perfect circle. They were lowered about ten feet underground into a dank cave. The walls were bluish-black stone. The walls were smooth and flat, too flat to be natural. The two stepped off of the tan-colored disc and onto the stone floor. The disc rose up again, revealing a contraption that made it rise and fall. They continued forward. They passed many hallways branching out from the main one, but they never strayed from their straight path. They finally reached the end of the hallway. The lizard tapped a button, and a speaker below it questioned, "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"

The lizard rolled his eyes. "Forty-two-point-eight-three grams."

The button turned green and the wall retracted. The two stepped through into something that rather resembled a throne room. The throne-like chair was on the far wall. More rooms branched off from this one. But the most prominent thing in the room was the figure standing upon the throne. She could only see its silhouette in the dim lighting. It was about Star's height, maybe a bit taller. Star was so dull that the only thought she had was _Why is he standing instead of sitting?_ She soon realize that it was, of course, to seem more menacing.

"Butterfly," the figure started in a secretive and eerie voice.

"Who are you?"

"I am the great and powerful…" he paused dramatically "...Agatenus!" He struck a triumphant pose. She saw.. Was that a beak? Mild curiosity lingered, but Star was visibly unimpressed.

"Get on with it," she said boredly.

"I believe," he continued, "that your interest will be piqued by the reason we brought you here."

Toffee, not one for dramatics, walking into the room and stated bluntly, "It's about Marco."

Star gasped both from seeing Toffee's face and hearing his words. While she was dying to know about Marco, she wanted to know something else. "Who are you?" she asked the lizard behind her.

"Why," he said with an evil grin, "I am Taffy, Toffee's brother."

"There are two of you?!"

"Three," said another lizard stepping into the room. It was a familiar face. It took a minute, but Star finally recognized him as the one who had broken her, Ludo, and Gia out of the cell in Venezala.

"All right, what about Marco?"

"Well, he has the medallion, correct?" Toffee said.

"Yes. How did you know?"

Toffee laughed. "The same way we knew that you were at Uni Castle with him and that he incapacitated you for a long while."

Star looked confused.

"Oh, young Butterfly, we have everything and everyone under our supervision and manipulation!" Agatenus bragged.

Toffee turned to Agatenus and raised a hand, clearing his throat.

"Continue," Agatenus said apologetically.

Toffee did so, directing his next words to Star: "We have the same goal in mind."

Star scoffed. "Doubtful."

"Think."

Many moments passed. The annoyance of Agatenus was clear. He was not a patient person.  
It finally came to Star's mind. She hesitated longer just to irritate the figure upon the throne. "We both want Marco to not have the Medallion."

Toffee smiled. "Precisely."

"But how am I supposed to beat a person with advanced magic without mine? I'm defenseless!"

"Ah, you are clever, aren't you?" Then he called to his brother, "Coffee, bring the sword!"

Sword? He didn't really expect her to use a sword, did he?

The one named Coffee exited the room and, sure enough, came back holding a glowing blue sword. It was magically infused, no doubt.

Coffee gingerly handed the magical weapon to Toffee. He took it in both hands: one on the hilt, one in the blade. "This blade is magically infused. Unlike your wand, any person can use it, magic or no magic. It will deflect magical attacks. You can also use it to attack-this can carve straight through solid armor. He held it out to Star.

 _I could kill Marco with this_ , Star thought. She slowly shook her head. "I don't want to hurt Marco with this."

"Then don't," Toffee concluded. "But if you happen to, I will be all the better for it.

He said _I_. Not "we," not "my brothers and I," not "Agatenus and I." Despite what they all thought, Toffee must have all of them under his thumb. Star smirked. It was fun watching them being manipulated. Toffee noticed it, winking at Star.

Star took the blade by the hilt. She swung it a few times. With each stroke, she felt power that she hadn't felt in a long time. She surprised herself with her adeptness using the sword; she had never practiced swordplay before, but it felt natural.

Toffee spoke again after she took a few strokes. "If you need any further convincing, I have a way to get your magic back."

Her magic back? It was too good to be true! Maybe if she got her magic back, things could go back to normal, or at least get better. Wasn't that where it had all gone wrong: when she lost her magic? If she had her magic, she could reverse whatever had been done to Marco and get that cursed medallion off of him. Then, maybe she and Marco could work things out, get back together, and this time without Jackie to interfere. Star smiled broadly, something she hadn't done in a long while. "I won't let you down."


	8. Chapter 8 - Star vs Marco

**Hey, everyone! I actually have quite a bit to say here. I recently published a one-shot titled** It'a Hard to Move On **. If you checked that out and left feedback, I would greatly appreciate it! This one-shot is a preview/bonus scene for my new story** Introvert vs. Extrovert **. Look at my profile for the details.**

 **Okay, back to this story! Expect gaps between updates to be about as long as the one between Chapter 7 and this one. I haven't been saying this, but criticism is always appreciated! I almost feel like I'm missing something: something that was in TCO but not in this story. If you have any thoughts, please leave them. Reviews!**

 **robertkellett - I think Star's lack of allegiance is only natural since she herself can't seem to figure out what is right and is struggling with her identity. As she changes thoughts about her identity, she changes what she thinks is right. From now on, she feel more stable and will mostly stay where she's at. And about that bittersweet moment... well, there's more of those to come! :D Thank you for the review!**

 **Star's Keyblade4114 - You're absolutely right. However, I think that "using" is too strong a word. He views his and Star's relationship as a partnership, two people teaming up because they have the same goal. While I say this, he does have his own interests in mind. He is planning on ending up with the Medallion and using it. You'll just have to see what happens!**

* * *

She left the next morning. She was off on another adventure. She felt almost… happy? No, she doubted she would ever feel pure joy again. She felt... less depressed? And yet… as she walked into her dimensional portal, the self-hate creeped back into her. She was going to fight Marco with a sword in hand. A sword she had accepted from Toffee. She really was evil, wasn't she? She was going to kill an innocent boy, one who had trusted her at that.

No! Don't say that! She wasn't going to kill him. In fact, she was going to protect him. Protect him from that awful Medallion. This was all for Marco, for his good.

But was it? Wasn't Star just doing this to ease her conscience? No, maybe for an even less noble reason. Because she wanted to have an adventure, and because she wanted her magic back.

Intentions determined whether she was a bad person or not, but the result was what would define Marco's destiny. And that was all that mattered because Star was too far gone to ever be considered a good person again. With that in her mind, she walked into the land that seemed as if it were torn out of a fairy tale.

A voice came through her earpiece. "He's still somewhere in Uni. A hundred yards north of the castle. And counting."

Star checked her compass, smiling. This was so cool! She felt like she was on a top-secret spy mission! Her smile quickly dropped. She was south of the castle. The massive castle was just a tiny speck of pink in the sky. She must be about five hundred yards from it. Determined, she started to jog.

Suddenly, a voice came in her ear again. "Hold your position! He's coming back around."

As she waited, she started to wonder who that was talking to her. Not Agatenus-it's wasn't his voice, and he was too lazy anyway. Not Toffee-he would be supervising. So one of his brothers-Taffy or Coffee. She had no microphone, so she couldn't ask.

Marco appeared on the horizon, running at full speed. Wait, Star thought. I couldn't have run more than 100 yards, and he was 100 yards away from the castle… that was almost half a mile in two minutes! Sure enough, he was a blur running toward her.

A command came in a hurried voice: "Use the 'fly' function. Say 'fly' and throw the sword like a javelin. But don't let go. It will carry you as if you weigh nothing."

"Uhhhhh," Star muttered, unsure how that would help her. After a second, she caught on. She estimated where his position would be when she threw it. She thought back to that math problem in Mrs. Skullnick's. She could do some pretty complex math stuff-she was just usually utterly wrong and made up half of it. But it was worth a shot. He's running at 30 miles per hour, so half a mile per minute, he's about 100 yards out by now, so he'll be here in… six seconds! Was that right? She hoped. She shouted "fly" and tossed her sword perpendicular to Marco's path. She lobbed just enough to land her in just the right spot.

She was way off. The good thing was that it landed in the right place. But… it arrived almost twenty seconds early. At that point, Marco had just seen her. He tried to slow himself or divert his route, but him momentum simply overwhelmed all efforts he made. And that was when Star finally saw who Marco was running from. Dozens of Unian horse heads chased Marco, holding sharp weapons. They weren't nearly as fast as him, but if Marco stopped, they would be upon him in seconds.

Another order came through her ear: "Spin in a circle, the sword held out, and say 'P Shield'!

She did as told, gracefully spinning once on the balls of her left foot. She planted her right foot and faced Marco.

Marco crashed into the shimmering blue force field at full speed, shattering it. He bounced back, dazed. But before Star realized what was happening, Marco was steady on his feet again. The guards in the distance drifted away, seeing a dangerous fight imminent and not wanting to partake in it.

"M shield!" that voice shouted. "M shield, M shield!"

"Uhhh," Star muttered to herself. She did the first thing she could think of: twirl around and shout "M shield." It seemed to work. A translucent red semi-sphere encased her.

Not a second later, Marco released a huge blaze of blue and purple substance. It was taller than Star, reaching over six feet, and just as wide. Soon she could see nothing but blue and purple with streaks of white, as the shield diverted the spell around her.

The voice came again: "That shield will be essentially useless moving forward. It takes too long to cast and you can't counterattack. Get ready to block his spells with the blade.

She gritted her teeth and stood, ready to take on her opponent. But behind her eyes was a dancing joyful fire. It was like the old days, the fire of excitement she got when she battled monsters. Except… this time, Marco was the monster. Or was she? But really, did it matter? Human or monster… it should be good or bad. It was two bad guys trying to kill each other-wasn't that good? Did it matter?

What really mattered was now, and right now Marco was flinging an icy fluid at her. She swung her sword at it with all her might…

It hit the ground with a clang. She felt the vibration all the way up through her arms. She had carved straight through the spell. This was like a hot knife cutting butter; she didn't need to swing as hard. Her arms were still weak as Marco cast another blue spell at her, this time a bigger one. Star was still shaking so much that she could barely keep her feet, much less lift the sword. Instead, she dropped and rolled. Bad choice, Star scolded herself, I left myself completely open. Sure enough, Marco cast another spell at her. She managed to twist away, but her arm was hit and instantly encased in ice.

"Aaaaaagh!" Star dragged herself up, encountering difficulty with the extra weight on her left arm. Her left arm threatened to drag her down, but she was just done. She didn't care if she had everything in the world holding her back. She was doing this.

Her eyes changed color. She spun, swung her sword over her head, and released a burst of flame from the sword. On her cheeks, faint pink marks appeared and started to darken to red.

Then the marks faded away as quickly as they had come. But ponderation of it would come later. She rushed over to Marco, sword in hand. She stood over Marco. He was definitely all right, just knocked down. He tried to get up but was stopped by a blue blade pointed at his chin.

I could kill him right now, Star thought. But it wasn't a true statement. Theoretically, it was possible. But in real life, her muscles would never respond to the order, and her brain would never give the order because her heart would never allow it. No matter what Toffee wanted, no matter what anyone wanted, no matter what she wanted… she would never be able to hurt Marco. Not like that.

That was the thing that separated the two. That was what separated pure evil from the rest. The lack of sympathy, the lack of a heart. And Marco had no heart now, just a hunk of metal. This wasn't a boy anymore, this was a metal object.

But this didn't reach Star's mind. As the fire of passion was snuffed out of her and she moved away from Marco, he thrust his arm toward her. A ball of icy spell rushed at her head-on. The sword, which had happened to be in the spell's trajectory, sliced off a tiny chunk of the spell, but the rest hit her directly in the heart. She felt the hard impact of the ground beneath her, and the world slowly faded to black as the ice spread through her body, groping at her heart.


	9. Chapter 9 - Abandoned

**This chapter is going to be a bit different from the others. I'm going to step away from Star for a chapter and tie up loose ends with the other characters... or braid them back into the main plot line! No reviews this time, probably because I screwed it up by deleting the poll chapter. Enjoy!**

* * *

Hero, villain, puppet, none of the above, call her what you want, but she is not dead. She is slowly thawing thanks to magic. Let's just say she wouldn't be alive if a magic-user wasn't nearby or if she hadn't sliced off some of the spell. And maybe a blessing from a long thought-to-be dead relative. Maybe. But the protagonist lying unconscious on the ground is a boring story, so we'll move away to some others who were forgotten in this whole mess.

* * *

Gia walked over the soft Mewnian grass. It felt so strange. She had only been away from home for… what? A week? Two? It felt like another lifetime altogether. Her feet hit the dirt road. From here she didn't even think. Her legs lead her home by memory. It was really a wonder that she still remembered it from a whole lifetime ago. Her feet finally arrived at the cottage tucked away behind the castle. As she stood upon the welcome mat, her fist poised to knock, the memories flew by her before her eyes. Star saving her from that awful lizard monster and setting off on an adventure with her… it had all turned sour when she had left them. But… there was no Star anymore. That Star was gone. And no matter what Gia tried to get her back, she could never get back the one she wanted. Just like her father. It was better to just give up and remember them and keep them dear to your heart than try to find a replacement, one that would never be able to truly replace the other.

And then there was the awkward, bitter moment when Ludo had returned. Gia had wanted to be somewhere else when he returned, but he possessed her only way home. Gia had just stared at him, extending a hand out, and demanded, "The scissors."

He had frightfully fished them out and given them to her. She had opened up a portal and left the scissors behind.

And now she was here. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then put a smile on her face; this was about to be a joyful time. She knocked.

She heard her mother's voice from within: "Go away! I won't leave this house until I have my daughter back!"

Gia smiled wider, a true smile. "It's your lucky day, Mom."

The door flew open. "Gia? Gia!"

Gia was brought into a hug. This was amazing, probably the happiest time in her life.

For the first time since she had lost her father, Gia felt pure joy.

* * *

The princess is still not awake yet, so I will continue. But I must warn you: this story is not nearly as happy as the one you just witnessed.

* * *

Ludo also walked upon Mewnian grass, but this grass was anything but soft. In fact, it was more dirt and rock than grass. Trees loomed around him, seeming to be moving toward him. They blocked out the blue sky so that all Ludo could see in every direction was dank, dark foliage. Anything could be hiding in the shrubs all around him.

Yes, this was The Forest of Certain Death.

He walked with his wand out in front of him, nervously surveying his surroundings. Suddenly, from his left, came a noise. Ludo froze. A wild… _something_ sprang from the underbrush. All Ludo noticed was that it had sharp tusks and it had his eyes on him. He quickly lashed out with the wand: "Incindero!" The boar-like beast burst into flames, finally settling into a pile of ash. "Um… okay, just… keep going."

Up ahead, a small house appeared. Could it be…? He walked up to the door and was posed to knock when-

"Hello! My dad said he doesn't want you here."

Ludo looked down to find that the voice came from a small frog. Its legs didn't look quite right, and it didn't have arms. He almost recognized this one. Ca-Kat… oh, what did it matter? But he did recognize her as one of Buff Frog's adopted babies. And that meant this was Buff Frog's house.

"Hey, little one, could you point me in the direction of the kappa residence?"

"Oh," the frog's smile dropped. "They are not a happy family. Something bad happened there."

Concern grew behind Ludo's eyes. "Where is it?"

"I'll take you. Follow me."

She hopped off to the east, Ludo following her.

They finally arrived. "There you go," the frog said, hopping away. Ludo took a deep breath. Then he walked up to the door and knocked. The door opened a sliver and an eye peered out from it. Suddenly, the door slammed open, revealing the figure of Ludo's mother.

"God! Ludo, it's you!" Ludo was taken aback when he heard not anger, but joy in her voice. "Come in, come in!"

Ludo stepped through the door. Most of his siblings were probably in bed. Dennis, Kudo, and Brudo were in he living room. Dennis jumped up as soon as he saw Ludo. "Big Brother!" He came over and put his wings around Ludo. Dennis eventually pulled back. The other two kappas in the room seemed at least more happy than disappointed.

But the joy had to end. His father was here. It was only a matter of time. As much as he hated to spoil the moment, he couldn't bear the anticipation any longer. "Where is father?" Ludo asked.

The temperature in the room seemed to drop thirty degrees. Mother finally spoke up. "He's… gone."

"Gone?! As in-"

"No, not that. But… he just left. I haven't seen him for months."

Excitement rose up inside Ludo, but he restrained it, as he knew the news made the others in the room feel the opposite.

"It started with the mysterious spell calls," Mother continued. I eavesdropped one time and heard the person he was talking to call him some kind of code name: Agatenus. I wasn't sure, but in the reflection of the lamp, I think I saw the face of a… lizard."

"Did Father happen to call this lizard by any name?" Ludo inquired.

"He called him a most peculiar name. It must have been a code name as well. He called him… Toffee."

* * *

There is one final tale to tell before returning to the young Princess of Mewni. It is that of a rather demonic ex-boyfriend. One who hoped to be an ex-ex-boyfriend. (Get it? Ex-boyfriend is no longer one's boyfriend, so an ex-ex-boyfriend is no longer one's ex-boyfriend? Meh, forget it.)

* * *

"Master Thomas! Master Thomas, come here!"

"What is it, Madilynne?"

"Someone is dying-"

"What's new? A person dies every three seconds or so."

"Master…"

"Madilynne, you need to learn to stop interrupting me for meager reasons. It is simply a waste of my time for relaxation. You see-"

"Tom!"

Tom stood, shocked by the shout.

"Thank you," the gargoyle continued. "As I was saying… it's your girlfriend. Star."

Tom frowned. "Star?"

"Yes, Star. Now are you coming or not?"

"Yes, yes I'm coming."

The two walked through several hallways, finally arriving at the Tribute Room. Inside, thousands of magical candles floated about the room and glowed with yellow light.

"Hmm, what am I on?"

"North American Earth, category birthplace," the computer responded.

"Two parameters: birthplace Mewni, location Uni."

"Was that Mewni or Uni?"

"Umm, both."

"I do not understand. Please choose one birthplace."

"Arrrrrgh!" Tom growled, about to lose his temper. He walked over a control pad and typed them in manually.

"Two results found: Star Butterfly and Inga Dove."

Tom frowned in confusion. "Inga Cricket? What would a common Mewnian be doing in Uni?"

"Inga Cricket is in Uni prison. She was arrested for treason and placed in jail for life.

Tom's eyebrows shot up. "Treason against a foreign government?"

"Don't ask me."

"Very well."

As Tom had been distracted, the thousands of candles faded away to two. One was only about an inch tall, while the other was more than half a foot long. This one was Star's. Her candle's flame flickered in and out of existence, fighting to stay alive.

"I can win back Star. I just have to prove that I'm better than that Marco boy. And there is no better time than this one." Tom cut a portal and dramatically entered through it.

* * *

 **A/N: Tom is going to be the center of the next chapter, and we get a glimpse at Marco's feelings in this. Since I'm currently working on three different projects (not to mention beta reading), chapter 10 probably won't be out until December. Meanwhile, I'll be finishing up the first chapter of my new story** _Introvert vs. Extravert_ **and adding more one-shots to The Fault in Our Star (A reference to a book I've never read.) Check out those SVTFOE fanfics while you wait. Until next time!**


	10. Chapter 10 - Imprisoned

**Hey guys! I actually met a deadline for once (Jan 31)! This is one of the longer chapters and I hope I wrote this well! Reviews!**

 **Star's Keyblade4114 -** _ **smirks**_ **Oh, you'll see by the end of this chapter.**

 **robertkellett - So I assume this is about chapter 8, "Star vs. Marco." Yeah, she can't seem to stay allies with anyone. She feels that she is hurting everyone she tries to befriend and therefore leaves them to "protect them from her." With Toffee, though, she is less of a leader and more of a follower, so she doesn't feel like she's hurting him. Being a follower might backfire, though…. Thanks for taking the time to review, buddy! :)**

 **Beta read by crysky (something I have forgotten to note previously. So sorry!)**

* * *

Tom hadn't taken one step out of the portal when someone swooped out of the bushes toward him. The next second, he was in a dank room. He looked around him only to see gray concrete. Upon looking down, he saw that he was handcuffed and chained to the floor. He burst into flames, melting the cuffs and escaping them. However, he had nowhere to go now.

Marco, applauding, walked into the room through a hidden door that seemed to disappear back into the wall as it closed. "6.81 seconds, that's impressive!"

"You," Tom sneered.

"See, I just needed to find out how powerful your chains will have to be. And I'll be honest, you're giving me a challenge!"

Tom rolled his eyes, not flattered by the compliment.

"I'm sure I'll manage though. See you later."

So Medallion-Marco had resorted to mocking, now. It was funny; this Marco seemed like a sort of anti-Marco because they were so radically different.

Tom had a while to wait. Meanwhile, he tried to think of reasons why Marco had captured him. He only came up with two. Either he wanted information or this was a setup to draw Star. Either would be painful for Tom.

* * *

Toffee kneeled over unconscious Star. He placed his hands on her chest and magical warmth radiated from them. Nothing happened for several minutes. Finally, Star let out a ragged breath.

"She's alive. She's breathing and her heart is beating, but she's too frozen for any of her organs to do much else. Much less wake up. Carry her back."

Taffy and Coffee grumbled but did so. Toffee grabbed the sword and cut a portal to the desert dimension, Calora. They walked through and entered the underground chamber under the cactus. Eventually, they arrived in the chamber where Agatenus lay.

"Mission unsuccessful," Toffee told him immediately upon entering. "The girl refused to kill him. The boy struck back and left her unconscious." Toffee bit back the words _as I told you several times._

"Dammit!" Agatenus screeched. "What do we do now?!"

"Perhaps," Toffee suggested, "it's time to start Operation Dark Queen."

"Operation what?" Agatenus questioned with clear confusion.

Toffee rolled his eyes as he re-explained the plan.

"What a great idea! I am a genius, am I not?"

"Your strategies are certainly superior to mine," Toffee agreed, sighing at the stupidity of it.

At this time the princess, sprawled upon a small sofa, began to awaken. At half-consciousness she began shivering. Once fully conscious, she looked around, remembered her body was no longer frozen, and eased up. "Hey, Toffee, Taffy, Coffee, Agatenus," she said conversationally. She waited for an accusation of her failure, but it never came. Star eventually broke the tension. "I'm sorry I couldn't do it. But I can't be expected to do that. If you want a killer, I'm not your girl."

"I know that," Toffee whispered, surprising her. "But these are the types of things that must be done to humor the stupid."

Star smiled at that. It was a relief that Toffee didn't want her to be a murderer.

 _Does that make me a good person? Because I'm unwilling to kill? Or does that just make me bearable?_

* * *

Tom's chains sparked with electricity. "Now tell me," Marco demanded, "what does the Blood Moon Pact entail, and how do I break it?"

"There's no way."

Another jolt of electricity. The voltage was far beyond what any human could endure, but it was just starting to become unbearable for Tom.

"I know that you know."

Finally, Tom cried, "Star, forgive my soul, I'll tell you."

Marco flicked his wrist, and the pain ceased.

Between deep, ragged breaths, Tom muttered, "You filthy monster."

Marco sent one more jolt through him. "Anything else you'd like to add?"

Tom sighed heavily, closing his eyes. "The Blood Moon Pact binds the two souls together, essentially committing them to love each other. The moon turns red through the eyes of the two affected only when the Pact exerts its will to bring the two together."

It was true. Both Star and Marco had been seeing red moons for the last week.

Tom smiled. "No matter how much you hate Star, there will always be a small part of you that loves her."

"How do I kill it?"

Tom was taken aback by his words. Not "get rid of" but "kill." He hesitated to respond and was shocked again. Grudgingly, he continued. "There are two ways. One is to wait for the next Blood Moon, when the spell will have run its course. You two will surely be dead by then, so I suppose that's unhelpful." There was a dangerous look in Marco's eyes. There was no more putting it off, or something bad would happen to Tom. "The second way… there is a reversal spell. It requires four components. One, magical ability. Two, a wand. Three, the restorative water from the Mewni Sanctuary. Four-" Tom gulped "-the blood of the other. Of Star. Mix the last two ingredients-any amount of them-then douse the wand in the mixture. Finally, say: "Let the Curse of the Blood Moon be no more. But there is one condition: Star must live, or the curse can never be broken. And there's repercussions. Star… well, she'll never be able to love anyone else. Ever."

"You know that doesn't concern me. What else?"  
"N-nothing."

"You're keeping something from me."

'If you're so intent on cutting your bond, I suppose it doesn't matter if I tell you. I'm pretty sure that, since you're bonded, Star can take the medallion off of you. She's the only one besides yourself."

"Thank you for the information."

"Can I go now?"

"You know, I think I'd rather you stay until some more guests arrive."

So this was how he planned to get Star. And Tom was responsible. How could he have let this happen to her? He felt so awful. This pain was even worse than the electrocutions.

* * *

Star had just come to and was now in her quarters. She paced from wall to wall, mulling over all the details of the fight that had just started to come back to her.

 _I almost killed him,_ a voice said.

 _But you didn't,_ said another.

 _You should've,_ said a third.

 _Yes_ , agreed a fourth, _now look at what you've done: Marco is still out there. Who knows how many people he'll hurt? You had the chance and you didn't act on it!_

 _No_ , argued the first, _it's not right. That's Marco! I can't kill him._

 _I'm not going to sink down to that level,_ continued the second.

 _I've already sunk far enough,_ added the first voice.

Her thoughts were quite suddenly interrupted when a portal of sorts opened up in front of her. Actually, it was less of a portal and more of a hologram, like the All-Seeing Eye spell. Marco appeared inside of it. "Hey, Star, how's it going?"

"Cut to it, Marco."

"I was just wondering if you'd like to join Tom and I for dinner." The image swung around to Tom, gagged and chained to the floor.

"Oh, come on, that's not even convincing. It's only 3 o'clock." Before Marco could continue, she picked up her magical sword and sliced straight through the hologram, dissipating it. She sat on her bed, the sword in her lap. She stared at her reflection in it. The blade had a left and right slanted panel that came together to form a crease up the middle. It divided her image into two parts. It must have been her imagination, but she could've sworn that the eye and skin on the left side turned to a shade of green. For the right half, her skin appeared gold and her eyes were four-pointed stars. She didn't want to be that person on the left. She wanted to be the one on the right. Her decision made, she cut a portal with the sword.

* * *

Her portal opened up in… Mewni, actually. She stood in front of Ludo's castle. She rushed through the doors into the throne room and beheld the nightmare Marco had taunted her with. Marco looked up at Star smugly.

Star had to mention here that Marco was nearly unrecognizable. His clothes were different-he still wore his signature hoodie, but it was dark magenta. His expression was cold as ice. No, it was stone. Unfeeling. Incapable of sadness or guilt, but also incapable of happiness. Star just had to save him. "What do you want from me?" she demanded confidently.

"Your blood."

Star was taken aback.

He smirked, but his eyes remained unchanged. "Oh, just a drop or two. Did you think I was really _that_ evil?"

 _Well, yeah,_ Star thought. "I'd rather not. In fact, I think I'll just get what I came for and be off." She then endeavored to cut through Tom's bonds, but the sword caught on the metal, which was refusing to be cut.

"Good luck with that," Marco remarked.

"Tom, fire!"

Tom nodded and burst into flame. Star hacked at the red-hot chains. Marco just watched, amused.

She must have struck fifteen times, but she wouldn't quit. Finally, mercifully, the chains broke. Tom promptly fainted from the exertion. Marco's brow furrowed, and he looked mildly disappointed. "So you broke my bindings. Now let's see if you can beat my magic."

He shot ice from his hand, but Star was ready and ducked it. Star sent a weak flame toward him-now, more than ever, she was careful not to hurt him too badly. Marco froze it.

Ugh, Star needed something other than fire (which seemed to be the easiest thing for her to cast with the sword). She smirked, getting an idea. _Back to the old days, I guess._ "Rainbow Fist Punch!"

The spell actually worked despite coming from a sword, effectively sending Marco to the floor. Marco lay sprawled there, and the Medallion had fallen to the side of him. Star smiled. _Perfect._ This is when all this would end. All she had to do was strike the sword onto the Medallion. Marco would be freed, and this would all be over. She felt so elated at the idea it almost brought tears to her eyes. She could barely believe it was happening. She lifted her sword, prepared to end all the despair and madness. She started to swing. Then something hit her in the back, and the wind was knocked out of her. Soon after, she lost consciousness. The last thing she saw was the face of Toffee standing over her with his hand extended.

* * *

 **A/N: Ha! This story isn't over yet! See you soon for chapter 11! Please review!**

 **P.S. I'm going to start giving you guys a teaser for the next chapter in the form of its title. Keep in mind that teaser titles are subject to change.**

 **Next chapter is titled: Family Reunion.**

 **Have fun with that!**

 **Also, as the story progresses, I'm starting to get a clearer idea of how many chapters this story is going to have. This story is planned to end after 15 chapters, and maybe an epilogue. Four of the remaining chapters are entirely planned, and I presume another chapter will find its way in, probably between the chapters planned to be Chapter 12 and Chapter 13. Actually, with the new plot twist of the four things Marco needs to collect, we might even end up with 16. I'm not quite sure, but I will put up some estimated release dates here.**

 **Chapter 11 - Feb.-Mar. (I'd like for February, But Feb. is really busy with TFIOS 5, Voice of a Star, and possibly starting on Introvert vs. Extravert. Additionally, This chapter will be relatively long and will rival the length of Chapter 8, if not surpass it.)**

 **Chapter 12 - Late March (This chapter is going to be big, and Chapter 11 ends in a cliffhanger, so I want to get it out.)**

 **Chapter 13 - Late April (This will hopefully allow me to catch up on some other things.)**

 **Chapter 14 - May (Another big one to watch for. Hopefully this will be early May.)**

 **Chapter 15 - Hopefully late May. (This is the final showdown! Probably. If there is a Chapter 16, it will happen there instead.)**

 **Epilogue - Will follow within a week or so of the final chapter.**

 **When June starts you should see a large increase in my writing speed. That's because it'll be summer and there'll be no more school to worry about! But that's like 5 months away, so I guess it's too early to think about it. Anyway, hopefully I'll see you back here in February!**


	11. Chapter 11 - Family Reunion

**Hey guys! I guess I lied in the last chapter when I said this would be long, so we have a medium-sized chapter! Enjoy!**

 **Star's Keyblade4114 (on chapter 10) - We'll, we can't really talk about this in terms of Marco, but yes Marco's possessed body is about to capture some blood. I promise, it won't be gory! Sorta like a Blood of Olympus scenario, but you don't know what that is.**

 **Star's Keyblade (on the update) - I can't thank you enough! And fanfiction is strange, isn't it? :) A large part of the story was truing to characterizing Ludo, and idea I've based some of this off of.**

 **imhere4svtfoe (on chapter 4) - Welcome to the fic! Yes, Marco is being used as the general antagonist here, but he's a bit of a plot device to reveal Star's true enemy, herself. And I have a few less OCs than you think! :) As I mentioned before, one of my goals with this project was to characterize Ludo. Although it seems like I may have thrown him out at this point, he returns soon!**

 **Now, actual fanfiction coming right up!**

* * *

"You. Blasted. Me."

"Star, I assure you it was absolutely necessary in the grand scheme of our plan."

" _Our_ plan, or _your_ plan?" Star saw right through Toffee's guise.

"Star, I have the best intentions of all monsters in mind. But in order to lead a revolution, we need a strong leader-"

"Which you've already crowned yourself as, I assume."

"Please let us maintain some ounce of civility."

Star became quiet. "Sorry."

"All is forgiven as long as you promise never to go behind our back again. We can't let you jeopardize the whole endeavor for something petty. At least tell us. Most likely we'll allow you to do whatever it is you want."

Star nodded, but the uneasy feeling that Toffee was ill-intended didn't go away. He was in it for himself. And there was no way Star could follow his restrictions for long. She realized that, in the long run, there was no way this could work. Star could ride it out for a bit longer, but eventually she would snap and nothing Toffee would do could get her to stay. He was just too demanding and untrustworthy. But this was her best shot at getting anywhere near Marco. So she had to stick with it for just a bit longer.

"Star," Toffee continued eventually, "you must be having doubts about me, but I assure you that I am entirely devoted to the monster cause, and I know you share my views. I just see the utter contempt with which us 'monsters' are treated by Mewmans, and even in other dimensions, and it disgusts me. I don't see why other beings feel so entitled while we are despised. It makes me angry!" He slammed his fist down on the table between them, but then quickly composed himself. Almost… _too_ quickly.

Star nodded. "I agree. I shouldn't have gone after Tom without your consent, I'm just not used to taking orders. But I promise it won't happen again!"

"Good."

Boo Fly came with more cookies and tea-Star had recently learned that a good portion of Ludo's former army now resided here. He refilled Toffee's glass but left Star's, as it was still untouched. He then set down the cookies, which Star was more interested in. After seeing her take three in the space of a few seconds, Toffee gently pushed the plate across the table toward her. The motion reminded Star of what she was doing, and she quickly stopped. She even drank some of the tea in order to appear more professional.

"So what do you want me to do next?"

"And that brings us to my next point. I have a task for you. Before we try taking monster rights through violence, we must first be sure that we cannot do so with persuasion. While it isn't likely, I sincerely hope that you can talk your mother into a peaceful solution."

"Wait, you want me to talk to Mom about monster rights?" Star wasn't sure how she felt about going to see her mother after so long.

"We must try."

Star nodded.

"I have composed a speech for you. You'll find it in your quarters."

"Can I write my own?" Star asked, already knowing that she wasn't going to follow through with using Toffee's speech.

"I suppose so. As long as it is prepared by morning."

"Of course." Seeing the conversation was over, Star stood from her seat, took a handful of cookies, and left to her quarters. She tossed aside the rolled parchment on the desk without even looking at it and started on inking out her own. She sat at the desk for over an hour, crumpling and tossing aside many papers. When she was finally content, she lay in bed and went to sleep.

* * *

 _There she was, Eclipsa right in front of her. Star had never seen her before, but she somehow knew it was her. She was covered from head to toe in magenta, and wore a matching hat. She looked like she'd just come out of the early 1900s or earlier, which she probably had. She was half-encased in crystal, but her upper half was free. She stuck out a hand toward her. It was almost completely covered in dark purple veins spidering up her arms. Star felt a nudge in her back and took Eclipsa's hand. It was deathly cold._

* * *

Star woke with a start. It was weird; she didn't usually have dreams like this. It just felt so vivid, so _real_. But of course, it was just a dream. But why had she dreamed of Eclipsa? And how had she known what Eclipsa looked like? Her appearance didn't seem to be pulled from Star's creativity or imagination, she seemed _real_ , and somehow Star knew that that was what Eclipsa really looked like.

But it was probably just a dream, right? And she had a big day today. The dream quickly faded to the back of her mind as she prepared herself for the day. She grabbed the scroll she'd written on and was out the door.

She walked through the dining hall to the throne room, not finding Toffee in either place. She knew he couldn't possibly be in his quarters-he was far too much of an early riser to still be in bed. The only person she found along the way was Agatenus in the throne room. "Where's Toffee?" she asked him.

"He's out. You're alone on this." He handed her a pair of dimensional scissors.

"Oh, I don't need those; I can just use the sword. "

"Oh, Toffee was sure to disable that."

"Oh." So Toffee trusted her even less than she'd thought. She took them and opened a portal to Mewni.

* * *

She stood in front of the castle door. The guards had already permitted her entry, but she hesitated to walk in. She took a deep breath, preparing herself, and walked into the place that she had once called home yet felt so foreign to her. To her misfortune, there was no more putting this off; Moon was in the throne room, staring at her.

"Star! Thank Corn you're here and alive! I was so worried about you."

Moon embraced her daughter, but Star didn't hug her back and had a tight smile. Moon pulled back, sensing something was wrong. "I… have something to talk to you about," Star affirmed.

Moon recognized the most prominent physical change Star had endured since their parting-but unfortunately not her emotional changes. "Star! Your marks!" she said in surprise.

"Yeah…." Star shrugged sadly. "No more magic."

"Do you… have your wand?"

Star's eyes darted nervously. "I… um… gave it up."

Moon grasped Star's wrist, looking into her eyes with urgency. "To who?!"

Star cringed. "Ludo."

"Thank Corn!"

It wasn't the response Star had been expecting. "What?"

"Ludo has returned to the Avarius house, and his mother has assured us of his compliance."

"Yeah, we're friends now."

Moon smiled. "Good. I'm so glad to have you back, Star." Then something occurred to her. "Have your… marks reappeared?"

"Once," Star admitted. "While I was using this." Star showed Moon her sword.

"Star, where on Mewni did you get that?"

"From Toffee."

"You stole it?"

"No, he… he gave it to me."

That rendered her mother perplexed and speechless.

"That leads us into why I came. The thing is… Toffee supports monster rights and so do I—"

"So you're _working_ with him?!"

"That's… not what's important. And honestly I don't trust him much. All that really matters is that I'm here to talk to you about monster rights."

"We've already been through this, Star," Moon huffed.

Star wasn't listening; she pulled the scroll out and started reading: "For centuries, the story has been told of how we mewmans fought against the monsters in the Great War, and on Mewnipendence Day defeated the monsters and claimed the land that is now named 'The Kingdom of Mewni.' But what any well-educated mewman knows is that this was the monsters' native land that we came and kicked them out of." Star looked down at the scroll again, but started questioning what she'd written. She threw it away, continuing with renewed vigor. "Those were their _homes_! And we just came and demolished them! They had done nothing wrong , and we just marched in, taking their land and proclaiming them the enemy! Can't you see this is wrong?!"

"Star, I assure you I took no part in these decisions. I'm sorry about what our ancestors did, but I can't change that."

"But we have to do something!"

"Star, I can't simply just _do something_."

"You're Queen Butterfly! Of course you can!"

"Star, I am a queen, not a dictator. I need the support of my people. And at my current state I'll most likely be dethroned if I proclaimed monsters to be good."

"But, Mom! There has to be _something_ you can do!"

"I'm sorry, Star, It's just not possible without time."

Star balled her fists. _Why can't she understand that—_

A booming noise was heard, and a faint ring of red light radiated from Star. Moon's face fell. "My own daughter… ambushed me?"

Guards came running, but too late. Toffee's army had already piled out of a portal that was made possible by the preceding event, a "magic bomb" hidden on Star that had detonated, shattering the castle's magical defenses. Everyone but Agatenus, Toffee, and his brothers grabbed ahold of Moon and dragged her away. The remaining four tried to coax Star into following them, but eventually had to resort to dragging Star away as she kicked and strained against them. "Mom!" she gasped as Moon was pulled out of view.

Star couldn't see Moon's reaction, if any. So she assumed that Moon was disgusted at her for ambushing her and working for Toffee.

But what she didn't see was Moon's change of attitude, realizing that Star had been tricked as much as she had, and Star was not the one at fault.

Star was pulled away to a chamber she'd never been to before. By this time, she had conceded to walk on her own. She walked inside to see that the center of attention was a large translucent blue crystal. And encased in that crystal was a woman swathed in magenta fabric and lace. A very familiar woman, despite Star never having met her in person.

* * *

 **Ooh, cliffhanger! I promise I'll try to get ch12 out quickly! Ch12 deals with Eclipsa and is titled "The Dark Queen." See you guys then!**


	12. Chapter 12 - The Dark Queen

**Sooooooooorry! I know, I took forever to update this. Lots of stuff has been happening like vacation, the flu, holidays, other stories to write, writing blocks... yeah, sorry. But, I did manage to bang out a pretty long chapter that's loaded with star and Eclipsa's interactions. I personally think this chapter reshapes Star yet again, which... Well, takes some effort. So anyway, reviews.**

 _ **Star's Keyblade4114 - Toffee put the "magic bomb" on Star while she was knocked out. He also bugged her. :)**_

 **Now** **I don't mean to beg, but please review! While I appreciate all the reviews I've gotten on my previous chapters, getting only one review isn't saddening and frankly isn't helping my motivation. And the zero reviews I got on chapter 10 kinda sucked. So if you want to keep reading this without waiting for months like this update, please review!**

* * *

 ***IMPORTANT: Eclipsa's conversations with Star inside Star's mind are in italics. When Eclipsa speaks, the line is preceded with "E~" and when Star speaks, the line is preceded with "S~". If there is no tag, then it's either specified in the prose or it's the same speaker as the previous paragraph.**

It felt and looked exactly how it had in the dream. She immediately knew this was "

Eclipsa. She was frozen in position inside a large crystal that dominated the room. Her gloved left hand was stuck out to her side. Her bare right hand was clasped to her chest, and the glove was to her side.

Toffee had Star's sword—although she wasn't sure when he'd gotten it. He struck the crystal with it, carving a large fissure. He cut out a square of the crystal, which fell to the floor with a loud _THUD!_ Inside, Eclipsa's head dropped limp and she didn't move. Many people around the room looked concerned. Star frowned in confusion but wasn't particularly worried about it. Toffee, as always, seemed to be the least surprise din the room.

Eclipsa let out a huge gasp. "Before!" she cried.

Star was even more confused now. "Before what?"

Eclipsa seemed desperate. "Before!" she shouted again.

Toffee calmly popped a coin into the vending machine in the corner. The whole room stared at him, wondering why he would be doing such a thing in such an intense moment. "She means B-4," he explained. He tossed her a Snookers bar and she gobbled it up hungrily.

Once she was done, she addressed them regally: "I suppose you didn't come here to free me?"

"You know your presence would be detrimental," Toffee admitted.

"Then what is it you want from me?"

"I believe that what we want is a telepathic bond between you and young Star."

Eclipsa thought for a moment, then concluded, "Another chocolate, please?"

Toffee's annoyance was written all over his face as he got her another one.

She nibbled on it, then spoke again. "I suppose I could do that." She sneezed then shook her head. "Now where were we?"

Toffee blinked. "You were going to create a bond with Star."

"Well, I believe I would need the girl's permission, wouldn't I?"

"No you don't; just do it," Toffee seethed.

Eclipsa laughed. "You really don't understand the inner complexities of dark magic, do you, cute lizard?" She patted Toffee's head while he deadpanned her, entirely unamused. "You know what they say, after all, leave it to the expert! An I don't mean to promote myself, but I do believe that I'm quite good at it." She zapped the half-eaten Snookers bar, and it regrew to full. "Ah, now that's much better, isn't it? Now, what was I doing?" She glanced at Toffee, amused. "Ah, that's right. So, Star my dear, do you accept the terms of the bond?"  
"Depends. What are they?" She had a basic idea of the terms, but she had caught on to Eclipsa's game and was following along with it.

"Well, I'll be inside your mind. I can talk to you and make suggestions to your brain. And, your marks… now, dear, whatever happened to your marks?"

"Ah, lost 'em. Glossaryck sacrificed himself because I lost control of my Hate."

Eclipsa frowned in surprise. "Well, then. You'll get my marks and get your magic back. Of course, you don't seem to have your wand. But at least you can dip down."

Star mulled it over. Maybe that was the problem. Why she couldn't beat Marco. She'd be more powerful with her magic, and maybe she could use it to save Marco from his curse. While she didn't want an evil queen lurking around inside her head, the promise of magic hooked her. After all, she didn't seem very evil. Of course, none of this really mattered since Star really had no choice.

Eclipsa extended her hand—covered in dark purple veins—and said, "So, what do you say?"

Star felt a nudge—suddenly being reminded of her dream, in which Eclipsa had struck the same pose and she had felt the same nudge.

She extended her own arm and gripped Eclipsa's. She closed her eyes and waiting for something to happen—

"Sweetie, the other hand."

It was then that Star realized she was clutching the back of Eclipsa's hand. "Oh, sorry." She swapped her right hand for her left. This time, the effect was immediate. Star gasped, and her eyes turned to solid purple. Her marks were now upside-down, and a sort of pedestal protruded from the bend of the heart—they were spades.

Star's vision returned to normal, and she heard a voice. _It is quite fun to annoy that lizard, isn't it?_ Star looked around her but couldn't find a source. _In here, Star. You're looking too far out._

She finally realized that the voice was coming from _inside_ her. _Oh, hey,_ she thought back.

 _You know, it's quite cluttered in here. Ah! Perhaps this place could use little spring cleaning!_

Star felt dizzy and could have sworn she heard crashing and clanging inside her head.

 _Let's see… this here, this here, this here, my, what is THAT doing in your_ Funny Pranks _section? Ah, no matter. I must admit, I was quite the prankster myself when I was your age. Still am._

Star had forgotten when she was for a moment. When she looked around the room, all she saw were raised eyebrows. "Hehe… it works," Star finally said. Her eyes drifted to Eclipsa, whose head had fallen to her chest. She seemed to be unconscious.

"Great," Toffee said without enthusiasm. "Now let's go before we're caught by the Commission!"

As it was, the Magical High Commission didn't arrive until nearly a quarter hour after they'd left. Eclipsa was re-entrapped in crystal by Rhombulus, but she was very much free.

* * *

As they arrived at Agatenus and the lizards' headquarters, Star glared up at Toffee. "I thought we had a deal. No going behind each other's backs."

"No, _you_ made that deal. Not me."

Star clenched her fists but didn't respond. She walked back to her quarters without a word and lay on her bed. _How in the world did I get into this mess?_ Star thought to herself. _How did I come to working with my enemy who I had known full well I couldn't trust?_

Another voice came into her head. _I know what you're going through, Star. See, I loved that monster long before I ran away. I was perhaps your age, actually. Then I was told I couldn't love him. I was so heartbroken that I sought out someone else to help me. That was my Mewman husband-but the fact was, I never really loved or trusted him. And that's where you are now. You know what I did next? I fled my husband in order to combat the forces keeping my love away from me._

 _S~ So you're saying that I should go after Marco on my own?_

 _E~ I don't know. Is that what I said?_

Her approach was actually quite similar to Glossaryck's. Although it sometimes annoyed her, it appealed to her at the moment. _Well… should I tell Toffee I'm leaving?_

 _E~ You could. Of course, there's a tremendous chance he'll try to stop you, and there's no way he'd give you that magical sword._

A plan began to form in her head. She'd wait until night, then steal the sword and escape.

 _E~ Now that sounds like it could work._

 _S~ Only one way to find out._

She went to bed more content than she'd been in a while. Eclipsa's voice was the company her lonely soul had sought all this time.

* * *

Star tried to stay awake that night, but she eventually dozed off around 10 PM. Luckily, Eclipsa woke her from within her head, and she got up and prepared for her escape. She didn't bother with taking anything-she had forgotten that she was unable to instantly create anything she needed with her wand. But there was a good chance that the sword had the same abilities accessible by magic-users as her wand, so the slip would probably cause no harm. She started straight down the hallway in the opposite direction of the entry room, toward where she assumed Toffee's quarters must have been, when Eclipsa stopped her: _I can sense the sword, but it's not this way. It's back the other way._

 _S~ Really? Ya sure?"_

 _E~ Quite positive. Unless you have better reason against it._

 _S~ Nope. Is it getting closer?_

 _E~ …Yes, it is._

Star entered the entry room where Agatenus's throne stood.

 _E~ It's in here. I know it is._

 _S~ I don't see anything._

 _E~ I think it's slightly below you. Ap, ap, too far. Take a step back. Now left—wait, too far. Back to the right. Now that's too far again, and I believe you actually need to take a step forward. Huh. maybe I could sense it better if you raised your right arm above your head…_

Star danced around the room strangely, trying to follow Eclipsa's instructions. She was moving frontward when Eclipsa told her to go the opposite direction, and as she turned, she tripped and fell onto her stomach. "Ughhhhhh…"

 _E~ While this is quite amusing, we'll be caught soon unless we figure something else out._

…

…

 _S~ I think I sense the sword._

 _E~ Perfect. Follow your instinct._

Star closed her eyes and walked toward the buzzing feeling she felt. She could feel it getting stronger, stronger, stronger-

"Uh!" Star gasped as she crashed into Agatenus's throne. It jabbed into her stomach, causing her to double over and hit her head on the throne's back. "Ughhhhhh," she groaned.

 _E~ You all right, dear? I suggest keeping your eyes open this time. Look before you leap, as they say. I think you should take the advice literally._

 _S~ Yeah, yeah… okay, here it is._

Star jumped back when a blast of magenta magic blasted a hole in the floor.

 _S~ What was THAT?!_

 _E~ Dear, how else did you expect to get down there?_

 _S~ Oh, I don't know, pull up the floorboards!  
E~ I suppose that could work, too._

 _S~ Just warn me before you use my magic next time._

Eclipsa paused before answering. _As you wish._

 _S~Then let's get this sword and go._

Star looked back down into the hole in the floor and took the sword from where it laid beneath. She looked back down at the hole. "Now how are we going to cover this up?"

 _E~ Well, I could always-_

"No!" Star said aloud. She covered her mouth, hoping that no one had heard her. She was already feeling fatigued from dipping down, and there was no telling what exactly Eclipsa's next spell would do. She suddenly realized that this must have been how Marco had felt when she'd first met him. She felt annoyed and overwhelmed, but she also felt that Eclipsa would be a good friend for her.

Star knelt on the ground and swept her sword in an arc just above the hole. Solid material covered up the hole, but it didn't quite match the floorboards around it. Seeing a sheet draped over the throne, she took it and threw it over the newly-filled hole as if it had fallen there.

"Now let's get out of here!" Star whispered. She tiptoe-ran out of the room. She stood on a dais-like piece of floor at the end of the hallway, and it rose.

She found herself in the desert of the yet-to-be-named dimension. She raised her sword to cut a portal but remembered something.

 _S~ Toffee disabled the portal-cutting magic._

 _E~ That won't stop you; you have magic again, after all._

 _S~ Oh yeah, thanks._

Star channeled her magic as she swung the sword. A portal opened up to Mewni. Star stepped inside, and she suddenly found herself in front of Mewni castle. _Here again._

But that was not her destination. She asked Eclipsa where to go next.

 _E~ He's after the Sanctuary Magic Water, you say? Well, I can direct you to the sanctuary. Now head toward the Mewni Jungle._

 _S~ What…? You mean The Forest of Certain Death?_

 _E~ Is that what they call it now? It was quite a peaceful place in my time._

 _S~ Well, it's definitely not peaceful anymore._

Eclipsa paused. _We'll be fine. Go ahead._

 _S~ Are you sure?_

 _E~ Well, do you want to save the boy or not?_

 _S~ Of course I do._

 _E~Then you gotta go through Mew-The Forest of Certain Death._

Star approached The Forest of Certain Death. She took a deep breath and crossed into the diverse and dangerous jungle.

 _E~ See, nothing to it-oh! What's that?!_

Star swiped her sword to the right, blasting a large man-eating bird out of the air. _That's a Warrior Hawk. That's nothing compared to what's coming._

 _E~ Well… I suppose I understand your hesitance, then._

Star picked up the pace when she heard rustling behind her. She quickly leaped over one of those plants that block the path and leave the only way through to be between their gaping jaws. The jaws snapped shut just as she passed through, chomping down on the creature that had been chasing her-she hadn't gotten a good look at it. _Eclipsa!_ Star thought to the new resident inside her head. _Directions, please._

 _E~ Ah, yes, let's see here:_

 _Follow the trail fifteen yards ahead,_

 _Don't take a left, but right instead_

 _S~ What are you do-_

 _E~ Right!_

 _To the moon-shaped crater I shall sneak._

 _Then continue toward the mountain peak._

 _Slightly left; toward the mountain in the distance._

 _Then finally stop when I reach the lake,_

 _And to the crocodile I do speak_

The duo-or rather, Star, arrived at the lake, but Star paused to try to understand Eclipsa's last line.

 _E~ Say to the crocodile there your name and that you want to enter the Sanctuary._

Star did so, and the crocodile crawled off into the water without responding.

 _S~ I feel stupid._

 _E~ Just wait._

Star waited. And waited. _I still feel stupid, Eclipsa._

Just then, a tower of crocodiles rose up from the water. When they dove back down, a pretty large dome-shaped building stood in the lake. Stepping stones appeared in the water, presumably to use to cross to the Sanctuary in the middle of the lake.

 _S~ So what was that all about?_

 _E~ You just revealed the Sanctuary. It's inaccessible to anyone but you and Queen Moon._

 _S~ Wait, Eclipsa! You just made me open the only way for Marco to get the magic water!_

And there he was. He stepped out of the trees toward them, intent on getting past them to the Sanctuary, where he would be one step closer to breaking the Blood Moon Pact.

 _S~ What have I done?_


	13. Chapter 13 - The Penultimate Showdown

**Hey everyone! I've been dead for a while but I'm back! Most likely I'll be able to get through the rest of this story without dying again. (Let's cross our fingers!) One of the reasons I'm taking a bit longer is because I'm working on a collab with Star's Keyblade4114 called _Star and Amalia vs. the Forces of Darkness._ That's on Keyblade's account, so go check that out if you're waiting! **

**Also, just in case you forgot over the period of inactivity, Marco is after three ingredients (the wand, magic Sanctuary water, and Star's blood) in order to break the Blood Moon Bond. Star, with Eclipsa's guidance just accidentally opened the Sanctuary and now must defend it.**

 **Wait… I almost forgot, but we have a review from Keyblade. Here's your response:** _ **Yup.**_

 **One final note In this chapter, I refer to Lady Avarius as a quasi-kappa. I think this is a good way to refer to Ludo's species since they aren't true kappas. I'll be using this term from now on and might change it in earlier chapters. Just so you know!**

 **Onward!**

* * *

Star had just uncovered the Sanctuary. That wasn't so bad, was it? Easy fix: close it again.

 _S~ Right, so now how do I close it?_

Eclipsa was silent for a few beats. _Right, right, see the interesting thing about that is…_

 _S~ I can't close it._

 _E~ Not at the moment. It should close eventually as long as no one's inside._

 _S~ Really Eclipsa? Really?! Were you_ trying _to set me up?_

 _E~ It was an honest mistake, dear. I forgot you were trying to keep someone out. You told me you wanted to get to the Sanctuary, and I got you there. It's awfully difficult to focus on multiple things when inside someone else's head. But no matter, we can fend him off together, I'm sure._

 _S~ Okay, let's do this._

 _E~ What are the limitations here? I understand he's your friend, so I suppose extreme measures wouldn't be preferred?_

Star's eyes widened. _Yeah, no killing, maiming, memory wiping, or anything else like that._

Eclipsa pouted. _Aw, but those are all the fun ones. If we're not doing any of that, how do you propose to remove him?_

 _S~ Knock him out, I guess._

 _E~ Very well._

"Star," Marco called from in front of her, "move out of the way, or I'll have to do it for you."

Star smiled. "I'll take the hard way any day." Suddenly, a beam of purple light—no, of darkness—shot from her fingertips, headed straight for Marco's head. At the last possible moment, he batted it aside effortlessly.

 _E~ Hm, he's a tough one, isn't he? How about some of this!_

A wall of purple formed in front of her then hurtled its way toward Marco. He enveloped himself in an opaque shield of white ice. A few slender cracks formed in his barrier, but not enough to cause any damage.

Eclipsa seemed shocked. _That was one of my most powerful spells!_

And Star had felt the toll of it. She took a step backward and stumbled, barely catching herself. Her breathing was becoming labored. Thankfully, she had adrenaline keeping her going.

Marco retaliated with a burst of icy air so cold it had snowflakes dancing inside it. Star mustered all her might and waved her sword in a circle in front of herself. It blocked the attack, just barely. Despite her effort, her hair turned white with frost and her lips turned blue. Her head throbbed, her knees trembled. Suddenly there were two Marcos, and she was holding two swords as her vision blurred. Eclipsa shot another spell at Marco, who deflected it. Star crumbled to the ground, her legs no longer strong enough to hold her. She could feel herself slowly slipping away. Eclipsa's voice buzzed in her ear. _Dear, I'm afraid you'll be losing consciousness soon. Don't worry, I'll keep it up without you._

Star mustered out one last thought to Eclipsa. _Don't kill me._

She never heard Eclipsa's response. The last thing she saw was a blast of purple all around her, then nothing.

* * *

When she woke up, she thought it was winter. Ice crunched beneath her and snow coated her clothes. Many of the trees near her had lost their leaves, but many more were uprooted entirely.

 _S~ So, how'd we do?_

 _E~ Well, the thing is, I'm quite embarrassed to say that…._

 _S~ Dang._

 _E~ I couldn't risk it. Your vitals were dangerously low._

 _S~ It's okay, he still needs my blood—wait._

Star quickly checked her body for any bleeding. _Nope. Good there. And he also needs the wand._

Ludo had the wand. If she could find Ludo, maybe she could keep the want safe. But where was he?

Star jumped at Eclipsa's voice. _Something I've learned throughout my years is that when people don't know where to go, they often drift back to a certain place they call home._

 _Home_. It felt like a foreign word now. Mewni Castle had been her home until they sent her away. Then the Diaz house was her home, but then she got kicked out from there. Then she'd had a sort of traveling home with Ludo and Gia until that had fallen apart. Then she'd had a home with Toffee, kind of, that she'd left. But she yearned for a place she could truly call home: a place she could always go to and rely on to feel comforted. But she'd never have a home unless she focused and got this done.

Where would Ludo call home? _His castle_ , was her first thought. But no. He'd told her that that castle brought back bad memories of his evil reign. That wouldn't feel like home to him. So where was a place that wouldn't remind him of his evilness? Maybe a place that reminded him of his childhood. The Avarius's property. That was it.

One part of her mind was glad that it was somewhere so close; it wouldn't take long to get there. The other part reminded her that it wouldn't take Marco long to get there.

"Let's go!" Star shouted, and took off running through the forest.

Minutes later, she stood outside the ramshackle hut of the Avarius family, poised to knock.

 _E~ So_ this _is where the Avariuses ended up?_

 _S~ Well they_ had _a castle, but their son kind of overthrew them._

 _E~ Oh._

A moment passed where nothing happened.

 _E~ Why do you hesitate?_

 _S~ I don't know. What if I'm not welcome?_

 _E~ The Butterflies have been on decent terms with the Avariuses for centuries! If they know who you are, you'll be fine._

 _S~ Okay._

She knocked.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, inside, she heard someone whisper, "It's him, isn't it?"

Star frowned. "Nope, I'm a her."

"Oh. Well then, come in."

The door opened, revealing a quasi-kappa woman. _That must be Ludo's mother_ , Star thought. "Hello Mrs. Avarius."

"My, you're Princess Star Butterfly, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am. I'm here to see Ludo. I'm a friend of his."

"Yes, of course. He should be upstairs." A crash came from the direction she was pointing. "Do check on him. That was a loud crash."

Star became alarmed; she knew what that crash meant. "I will! Thank you!" She shot up the stairs. Opening the door which the noise came from, she found what she had expected and dreaded: Ludo facing off against Marco surrounded by broken glass from the window he had tumbled through.

As she entered, Ludo saw her, saying, "Star…?" He finally blinked, coming out of his surprised stupor, and grumbled, "Nice of you to finally show up."

"Ludo, we have to keep the wand away from him."

"What do you think I'm doing?" He blocked a zap from Marco.

"Well, try extra hard if you want to prevent an interdimensional apocalypse."

"Sure, why not? Block." They both shielded against Marco's area attack.

"Great."

Ludo fired a beam at Marco. "You gonna help?"

Star released a tornado of flame in response.

Ludo yelped. "Don't set my house on fire!"

"It only affects the target," Star explained. Watching her spell, she realized something. Where was Eclipsa?

 _S~ Eclipsa?_

 _E~ …_

 _S~ Eclipsa, where are you?!_

She didn't realize she said the last part aloud until Ludo looked at her quizzically. "Oh, just talking to the three-hundred-or-so-year-old dark queen in my head," Star said casually.

"You know what, I'm not even surprised." He fired another blue beam at Marco, who was now falling back.

Marco spread his arms and launched a fan of flame at them, which they both ducked under. In return, they lashed out with a spell at the same time. Marco flew backward, tumbling toward the broken window he'd come through.

"I _will_ get that wand, just you wait," he sneered before leaping out of the window.

It was a split-second decision. Star and Ludo had finally bested Marco. For once, Star had the advantage. This could be her best shot at getting the Medallion off of him and ending this for once and for all. Even if it risked losing the wand, the opportunity was too great to pass up. "After him!" Star shouted. "Don't let him get away!"

She and Ludo dropped out of the window onto the ground. After regrouping themselves from the fall, they took off in the direction of the rustling branches.

As they ran, Ludo began to talk. "Why should I trust to follow you around?"

"I don't know. But you are, aren't you?"

"Pity. Also, how'd things go with the lizards?"

"Not well."

"Told you. Why the heck did you abandon us?"

"I had to get away from you."

"And why is that?"

"'Cause you're a good person. And I wanted to protect you from me. Where's Gia?"

"Left for home, like me."

"Did she make it safely?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

As they bickered, Marco came into view ahead of them. Using a few rainbow launching spells, they caught up with him in a clearing. Ludo shot a spell to trip him. Star launched a spell, shouting, " _Super Stretchy Rainbow Taffy Bondage_!" The spell wrapped Marco's arms and legs in sticky rainbow substance, pinning him to the ground. She rushed to him, quickly grabbing ahold of the chain around his neck.

Instantly, a fierce cold bit at her hands. It started to climb up her arms, into her chest, and all throughout her body. Overcoming the initial shock of it, she started to pull up on the chain. For every inch that she gained, the cold grew mightier. Her teeth chattered fiercely, so much that it hurt, until they couldn't chatter anymore because her jaws were frozen together. Her entire body began to stiffen so that it became a struggle even to move her arms up. Beneath her, Marco writhed, making it even harder.

But there was something inside her that kept her going, some driving force that provided warmth. It was her heart. It throbbed in her chest unwaveringly, urging her to keep going. She sensed it discreetly as if the rest of her body didn't exist.

It was her love for Marco. That's what was keeping her going. Tears were freezing on her cheeks as she tried desperately to get back the boy she cared so much for. All her emotions had been stuffed down just to survive the last few weeks, so much so that she'd almost forgotten about them. But they rose to the surface now. She cared so freaking much about Marco, the real Marco, not this one. She just wanted so badly to be _with_ him. What had she done to lose him? She could barely remember what had happened; all she knew now was the loneliness and pain. What had she done to deserve to feel so alone?

She could feel her resolve crumbling. The ice was encroaching on even her heart. Her arms could no longer move no matter how she willed them to. Finally, the coldness swept over her heart, freezing it over.

Then something truly magical happened. Just as Star lost all her senses, she felt Ludo's scaly hand on her arm. She felt another hand on her other arm, this one accompanied by the unmistakable squeak of turtle-shaped boots. She also felt the purple hands of her ex-boyfriend clutching her shoulders. Eclipsa finally showed up in her head, shouting encouraging comments like _You can do it!_ and _Would you like me to conjure up a sweater?_ and _Don't give in and bite the dust; it tastes terrible!_

And as everything came together, one more thing appeared, the Blood Moon, shining its red light even in the middle of the day.

The cold seeped out of her and into the others. The four of them, and maybe Eclipsa too, braved the cold together. It was a huge relief to Star, who could now move again. Compared to the earlier torrent of cold, she almost felt warm. Now there were five hearts, bearing together and striving to overcome the cold: one inside her, one on her left, one on her right, one behind her, and one back inside that crystal in Mewni Castle but also somehow inside her head.

Then three things happened in a matter of a few seconds. First, Star's nose began to bleed from the dryness of the cold. The blood dropped onto the ground beside Marco.

Second, Marco freed his right arm and snatched the wand dangling from Ludo's hand.

Third, he pulled out a vial of magic water and splashed it onto the ground where Star's blood had begun to collect. The mixture bubbled orange. Then he dipped the wand in it and shouted, "Let the Curse of the Blood Moon be no more!"

"Oh no!" Tom shouted from behind her. "Star, let go!"

But it was too late. All at once, her heart and the hearts of her friends dissipated, still there but no longer helping brave the cold. With nothing to resist the ice, Star and her friends were blasted backward, and everything turned white.

* * *

 **Ha! I had you guys there, didn't I? Everything built up perfectly to Star getting off the Medallion… but nope! She'll have to figure out another way!**

 **Also, I realize that Tom's and Gia's seemingly random appearance has no explanation, but it will be explained in the next chapter.**

 **Aaaand, that leads into our title-of-the-next-chapter sneak peek. It will either be called "The Blood Moon Fades" or "Friends." Not much of a reveal there.**

 **¡Adios a todos!**


	14. Chapter 14 - The Blood Moon Fades

**Hey guys, I'm back! It's been... over a year, yikes! I don't know if anyone still remembers this story, but maybe new readers will discover it now that I'm updating again! Anyway, I'll cut to the chase. Reviews, then let's get to the chapter!**

 **Keyblade - As always, thanks for sticking with the story, buddy! :)**

 **All other reviews - I can't guarantee that this story won't fall into hiatus again, but I will certainly try my best! So sorry to keep you all waiting!**

 **Now, let's do this! Remember, Tom and Gia just appeared out of nowhere to help Star remove the Medallion along with Ludo and Eclipsa, but Marco broke the Blood Moon Bind just before they could get it off. How will this affect him and our protagonists?**

* * *

 _Mewni, 30 minutes ago_

She knew her mom wouldn't want her to leave. But she had to. Besides, what were the chances of getting magically abducted a second time?

It was just everything that had happened. She felt so many emotions. Regret. Longing. Guilt.

She didn't expect to change her decision to end her journey. She just wanted to walk, like when she had felt those same emotions after he had passed away. Regret. Longing. Guilt.

So she decided to walk. She left the house when her mom was still asleep and left a note, although she fully intended to return before her mom would awake to find it.

She opened the door, but as soon as she set foot outside, she froze. Was she really doing this? It was a huge risk, and she didn't have a real reason for taking it.

 _It's fine_ , she told herself, _you're just being paranoid_. And yet, perhaps some part of her wanted to run into trouble. More specifically, a certain blonde-haired, wand-wielding girl who she had left behind.

So she set out walking her normal path. Down the dirt path that passed for a road. Around the tower of the castle, running her hand along the smooth, cool stone of the wall. Then down toward the forest. As she approached the tree line, she began replaying in her mind all that had happened. Star freeing her of Toffee, being turned into corn—she stifled a small laugh at the memory—the spear in her leg, Ludo Levitato-ing her through the lizard base—although that part was fuzzy—and then when she left:

" _That's a death trap at its most obvious. And Star won't even come with us. What, are you_ trying _to get us killed? Star's not even worth it."_

" _You don't know Star."_

" _Don't talk to me about knowing who Star is. I spent the first seven years of my life with her! And then do you know what happened? My father died of cancer!"_

" _Don't tell me about hardship! I had to survive in the wilderness with no food or water for months!"_

" _I was possessed by an evil lizard!"_

" _I was disowned as a child for being short!"_

" _I can barely talk to my mother because of her PTSD!"_

" _I had everything taken from me!"_

" _I had everything taken from me!"_

 _Silence._

" _You ungrateful little girl," Ludo muttered. "If you refuse to search for Star, then I'll go alone."_

And then she'd left. Grabbed the scissors and left. She had no idea what had happened to Ludo or Star. They could've been hurt because she left. But she didn't want to think about it.

She came upon the forest. _The Forest of Certain Death_ , as it was called, but that was a bit of an embellishment. Usually she walked a little bit in, walking under the cool shade of the canopy of trees, but she began to reconsider. She shook her head, shrugged, and continued on. "What am I even worried about…?" she muttered.

She walked and walked, and for a while she forgot what she was doing and just kept walking straight, lost in thought. She frowned, shook her head, and started back. _Ugh, why am I acting so weird?_

Then she heard a strangled shout. _Star_. She whipped around toward the sound, turning away from the edge of the woods. She wasn't going to abandon her friend this time. She turned and sprinted, head down, toward the sound.

* * *

 _The Underworld, 15 minutes ago_

"Madilynne told me Star was in danger, so I went to try to help her. After that, I don't know what happened. I just stepped out of the portal… I think I remember feeling pain in my head, but it all happened so fast... then everything went black and I ended up in that room. They must've knocked me out, whoever 'they' is. And then… well, you know from there."

"Thomas," his father addressed him, "it seems as though it is unsafe to leave the kingdom. You are not to leave the palace."

Tom shrugged. "Okay, that's cool. Wasn't really planning on leaving anyway."

"Good." Tom's father placed a hand on his shoulder and led him out of the throne room, walking seemingly aimlessly. "See, it is imperative that you understand the importance of your safety, not only, of course, to your mother and I, but also to the Kingdom at large." His father looked directly at him, into his eyes. Well, into the bottom two, anyway. "Thomas, you are our only heir. If something were to happen to you…"

He trailed off, walking for a while in silence before continuing, "Your mother is past the age to bear healthy children. Without you, if your uncle were to survive me, which is entirely possible given that he is five years younger… well, we both know what a disaster it would be if he succeeded to the throne. I'm not trying to be overbearing, but I'm hoping that, because of all of this, you'll understand how crucial your safety is. That's why I'm keeping you in the castle and-"

Tom, who'd been peering into each room as they passed them (and, if truth be told, not in the least paying attention to his father's lecture), pointed into one, inside which a red light flashed rapidly. "Oh hey! Doesn't that mean that the Blood Moon has been activated?"

"Well, yes, but that doesn't mean much of anything. Probably just Star and-" Tom's father caught himself before he touched on Star and Marco, a sore subject for his son. But when he turned around, he saw no one. His face turned red."THOMAS LUCITOR!"

• • •

Tom stepped out of a portal into the Forest of Certain Death. No sooner had the portal closed behind him than he heard a strangled shout. _Star_. He turned and sprinted, head down, toward the sound.

* * *

 _Present_

Tom groaned as he tried to pull himself up from his prostrate position, having been tossed across the clearing. He finally managed to sit up, and his vision began to come into focus. He managed to make out Star, who looked no better than he felt, but thankfully didn't seem too much worse off. "Star!" he shouted, dragging himself over to her. He held her as she began to gain consciousness.

"What… just… happened…?" Star groaned in numbness.

"Marco broke your Blood Moon Bond."

"Right…" her eyes closed, and her head began to loll again.

"Star!" Tom shouted, shaking her lightly.

"I'm… I'm awake, Mom…" she grumbled.

"Did you just call me Mom?" Tom questioned, very concerned.

Star looked embarrassed but managed to cover up with, "No, you must've misheard that. Y'know, Mom, Tom, sounds the same…." She finally shook her head and sat up, to Tom's relief. "I don't feel so great, honestly. Tom," she was sure to add at the end. "It's like… a pain in my chest. And my head hurts," she admitted.

Tom knew she was serious; Star rarely ever admitted that she wasn't doing well. "All right, you should rest here."

"Yeah… I'm fine, Tom."

Tom smiled. There was the Star he knew.

Across the clearing, Ludo and Gia were regaining consciousness.

"Huh, that's Star's ex, isn't he?" Gia asked as she stumbled to her feet.

For the short quasi-kappa, the task was a bit easier. "Yeah. The demon dude. Tom, I think?"  
"Yeah, heard about him but never much liked him."

"Well, let's give them their space." An awkward silence passed between the two as Ludo began to stare at a maroon thread caught on a branch a few yards off. "Stay here. Tell the others I'll be back."

Gia nodded, but then she began to question, "Wait, what are you—"

But he was gone.

Meanwhile, Tom approached her, sticking out his hand to shake. "You are…?"

She ignored his hand. "We've met."

Tom frowned. "We have?"

"Do you happen to remember a certain court case called _Raven et al v. Lucitor_?"

"Oh."

"When Star broke up with you, you were so angry that you set three houses on fire! One burned to the ground. That house was mine. There were certain things in that house that money cannot buy back."

As realization dawned on Tom, his face fell. "I'm sorry, Gia. I know that's a lame response, but… I was different back then. I've changed. For the better, I hope."

"Right," Gia said flatly. But then she remembered how she had just seen him treating Star and tried to believe him. "Right," she repeated, more kindly this time.

"It's okay. I know it takes a while to forgive."

Forgive.

 _Forgive._

Star had forgiven Ludo, despite everything he had done to make her life was why he had to do this for her. He had to make _him_ forgive her, to finally repay the debt of her forgiveness. Ludo had to make him forgive, because, above all else, he knew that Star deserved to be forgiven.

Sure, it would most likely mean the end of his best-friend status with Star. Yes, he would replace Ludo as if Ludo had never been there, eclipse him out of existence. And that fact got to Ludo more than he would like to admit.

But he had to do it, had to set things right. Because it was the right thing to do. And because it would make Star happy. And Star _deserved_ to be happy; Ludo felt more sure of that than anything.

So he put one webbed foot in front of the other, trying not to think about what he was doing, leading himself solely on instinct, until he found him in a clearing.

Marco sat with his back against a tree, hands shoved into his hoodie pockets, head bowed so that he could be sleeping, but Ludo doubted it. This seemed to prove the theory Ludo had developed: The boy seemed a lot less demonic, if still a bit angsty. Ludo approached him tentatively. When the possessed boy didn't react, Ludo figured that he was either not currently hostile or perhaps asleep after all. After a long while, his voice shaking, Ludo finally got up the courage to say, "You feel different, don't you, after breaking the Bond?"

Marco nodded slightly, his first indication of awareness.

"I thought so."

In a thick, raspy voice that sounded more human than it had previously, Marco started, "It reduced my feelings for Star. Didn't obliterate completely, like I thought, just reduced. But it also reduced my hate for her. It's strange… I almost hate her _because_ I love her, at least, because I loved her but she rejected me. The less I love her… the less painful it is."

Ludo continued slowly, tentatively. "But Star loves you back, Marco. You just have to give her the chance. One more chance. Just take of that cursed medallion and—"

"NO!" Marco growled, his voice lapsing back into that inhuman, animalistic tone. He clutched the medallion tightly to his chest. "It's better not to feel."

"It might seem that way. I felt like that for a long time. But while you might not feel pain, you'll never feel happiness either. Sometimes you just have to have faith."

"I _tried_ having faith." His voice was back to sounding more human.

"That's not how faith works. You can't abandon it when things get rough. In fact, that's when you need it most."

"She kicked me away like I was nothing."

"Marco…" Ludo started, using the boy's name tentatively. "I know how it feels to be kicked away by someone you love, someone who you thought loved you back. I was treated horribly by my family, because of a number of quasi-kappa superstitions I don't want to go into, so I ran away. I tried not to feel for a long time, tried to become a figure of unquestionable authority, to demand respect. But in the end, I never felt truly happy. Then I met Star, and I decided to put my faith in her. There were several instances where I wanted to call it quits, but I didn't. I stayed by her side. And guess what? She ended up saving me back there at my old home. Saved me from _you_ , actually. I'm not sure I could have beaten you without her."

"She just wanted to keep the wand safe for herself. She didn't care about you."

"Star's been trying to keep me safe from the beginning. She just went about it the wrong way. She distanced herself, thinking it would help. I think that's actually what she did with you, too."

"Well, it didn't work very well, did it?" Marco retorted bitterly.

"That's more your fault than hers. She saw that things were going badly between you two, so she tried to cut it off. She thought that if you two split apart, the anguish you were feeling because of your rocky relationship would go away, for both of you. It worked for her, but it didn't work for you because you refused to move on. But she _was_ trying to make you happier; you were just too stubborn to accept it."

"She fed those exact words to you, didn't she?"

"But they're true."

A long silence passed.

Ludo broke it. "Look, you have three options: move on from Star, let go of both the love and hate you feel for her; or give Star another chance, try to be friends again; or just keep sulking like you are now and be miserable for the rest of your life. But that Medallion is tainting your judgement, and now you're the only one who can take it off."

After another long silence, Ludo concluded, "I'll let you think on it." He got up and headed back toward Star and the others.

As Marco sat there alone, he fingered the Medallion hesitantly. Finally, after a very long while, he gripped it and pulled it over his head.

A wave of emotions hit him all at once.

Sadness.

Anger.

Hurt.

Loneliness.

Confusion.

 _Fear_.

He let it fall back over his head, and the numbness sank in again, washing away all feeling.

It may not be ideal, but this was his life now. He doubted he could survive the raging river of emotions bottled up inside of him without the Medallion.

So he put it back on and decided not to look back.

* * *

 _15 Minutes Earlier_

Ludo had just disappeared, and Star was finally stirring again. Tom was at her side immediately. "How do you feel?"

"A lot better, actually. I think it was just the initial blast."

Tom helped her sit up. "Look, Star, if I'm going to stay with you through the rest of this—"

"You don't have to—"

"Well, I am."

Star sighed. "You were saying…"

"Right…" Tom stalled, "it's just that, I know you have a lot on your mind right now—like, a _lot_ —and I don't want to be adding to that. We both know I've been trying to get back with you since the Blood Moon Ball."

"Yeah, it's been pretty obvious."

"It's just… I wanted you back. I used to have so much fun when you were around, and being your boyfriend was just… well, amazing. And I guess I wanted a little of that back.

"But that's not fair to you, not with what's happened in the past, and not with what's happening now. And I'm finally realizing that what I miss most is your friendship. So… I'm all right with just being friends for now."

"Thanks, Tom. That means a lot."

"Great. Now let's save the world."

* * *

Ludo returned to a makeshift camp: Tom, Gia, and Star were huddled around a fire burning with magical red flames.

Star looked up when Ludo entered the clearing. "Tom and Gia said they're staying with me, whether I like it or not." She grinned wryly.

"Well, I'm staying too," Ludo announced matter-of-factly."

"Thought you'd say that." Star tried to sound annoyed, but Ludo caught her trying to stifle a small smile. Star patted a spot next to her, inviting Ludo to sit.

He obliged, warming his hands on the fire across from Tom and Gia who were—to Ludo's great surprise—chatting quite amiably with each other.

"How do you feel? You know, with the Bond broken and everything?" Ludo prompted.

Star just shrugged. "I don't know if it changed anything for him, but I don't feel much different, honestly. Still just trying to survive here."

"But how do you feel about… him?"

Star sighed deeply before responding, "If we ever get out of this, return him to normal, then… then I'll worry about that when it comes. But for now, we just have to focus on stopping him before he tears apart the world." She seemed to have a sudden realization. "What is he trying to do, anyway?"

"I'm… not sure. I don't think he really knows what himself. I actually… well, when I was gone, I followed him, found him in a clearing sitting against a tree by himself. It seems like when he severed the Bond, it reduced his feelings for you—all of them. With less negative thoughts, the Medallion has a weaker hold on him. So I was able to go up and talk to him—figured trying to convince him to take it off himself was at least worth a shot. He seemed kind of... lost. When he was collecting ingredients to break the Blood-Moon Curse, he had a motive, had direction, but now that's gone, he doesn't really know where to go, what to do. He's just sitting there stewing in his misery, which is never a good sign. But at least he's idle for now. We can use that time to form some sort of plan."

"Right. I've got a few ideas… they were going to be for a last resort, but I think we're at that point now."

"Agreed."

Gia and Tom's conversation broke up as Star addressed all of them. "So, now that we're all here, we need to decide on a course of action. Ideas?"

There was silence but for the rustling of a small animal moving through a bush.

"Right. So, as you know, I was actually working with Toffee for a rather short period of time."

"Umm… I didn't know that," Tom interrupted.

"Well, I did. I was breaking orders when I went after you, Tom. I ditched him not long after he had Eclipsa make a connection with me."

"Wait, _Eclipsa_? As in, the Dark Queen?"

"Not important. Anyway, Toffee said he wanted to get the Medallion off of Marco, but when I came to save you, Tom, I tried to destroy the Medallion, and, as I was about to cut through the chain, Toffee blasted me unconscious and let Marco get away. That leads me to believe that, either Toffee's playing both sides, or, more likely…"

"He wants the Medallion for himself," Ludo finished.

"But why would he want the Medallion?" Gia countered. "He can already do magic using that wand-crystal shard in his arm, can't he?"

"I think I can answer that, too," Ludo continued, turning toward Star. "Does the name 'Agatenus' mean anything to you?"

"Yeah. He was, like, Toffee's boss or something. Toffee was really the one in charge, of course, but—"

"And he was a quasi-kappa, wasn't he?"

"Yeah, he was."

"Well… according to my mom, my father recently disappeared."

Star looked at Ludo incredulously. "You're not saying…"

"Agatenus is my father. Well, it's his code name, anyway. And my father _would_ want the Medallion."

"But why would Toffee go out of his way to get it for Ludo's father?" Tom queried.

"A trade," Star concluded. "Agatenus has something that Toffee wants, likely something that he has no hope of stealing. So he's trying to get the Medallion so he can trade it for whatever he _really_ wants. But what could that be?"

Everyone turned to Ludo.

"I can't think of anything. My father doesn't own anything magical, much less powerful." He paused. "Unless…"

"Unless what?" Gia pressed.

"Well, there's this heirloom my father has always been possessive of. A laurel wreath, the kind you wear around your head. I never considered that it might have any power, but he never let any of us touch it. Not even Mother. But if it does have power, Father doesn't know how to use it."

"But you don't know what it does?" Gia prompted.

"I don't think it matters," concluded Star. "We know that it's powerful, that Agatenus has it, and that Toffee wants it. It's the last piece of the puzzle. We can't let Toffee get this heirloom, so, by extension, we can't let him get the Medallion. We need to get to Marco before they do."

"But there's still one problem," Ludo argued. "No one can get the Medallion off Marco but himself."

"True. But if there's a way, Toffee will find it. If there's anything I've learned over the years, it's that magic is riddled with loopholes and exceptions. We need to find the loophole before Toffee does."

For the first time in a while, Star heard Eclipsa in her head: _See, it's amazing how putting more heads together can accomplish so much more._

Eclipsa was right, Star realized. When she had cut herself off from everyone, she hadn't been able to think past putting one foot in front of the other—and even that had been hard. But here with all her friends, she was actually making headway. She should never have abandoned them in the first place.

Star was jolted back to reality when Tom spoke up. "Could we just cut the Medallion off, like you tried to do back when you freed me? If Toffee's not willing to destroy the Medallion and we are, then we have a leg up on him."

Star shook her head. "That was an opportune moment. It was positioned just perfectly so that I could cut through it but not hurt Marco. We're unlikely to get that chance again, especially since he'll be ready for it now that I've tried it once. Plus, cutting the chain while Marco's still wearing it could have consequences we haven't thought of."

"Then how are we ever going to figure out how to get the Medallion off him?" Gia lamented.

"Research," Tom supplied grudgingly.

"Relicor's library?" Star groaned.

Tom nodded. "Relicor's library."

* * *

 _Relicor's Library_

Star sealed the portal behind them as they stepped into the underworld. Lucitor Castle loomed above them. As with Butterfly Castle, Star couldn't make a portal directly into the castle, so she had made them land right in front of the entrance—she had managed to surpass the outer gates.

"Huh, security is getting a bit lax," Tom commented as he opened the double doors and walked through. As soon as everyone was inside, Tom turned around and addressed them in a whisper: "You three have to be inconspicuous. My dad will _freak_ if he sees all of you with me."

"Duly noted," Star replied. Then, to Eclipsa, _Do you know any invisibility field spells?_

 _Eclipsa!_

 _ECLIPSA!_

She sensed a yawn coming from inside her head, which was definitely a weird sensation.

 _I was just settling in for a nap!_ Eclipsa complained.

 _S~ Why can't I ever reach you?_

 _E~ After being unconscious for almost three hundred years, it's hard to stay awake for more than a few hours at a time. Not to mention that infiltrating your mind is_ exhausting _!_

Star didn't quite like the use of the word _infiltrate_ , but she shook off the weird feeling it gave her and tried to focus.

 _S~ Invisibility field!_

 _E~ Oh right. Let's see… ah! That one should do nicely. It'll make each individual person invisible, not really a field, but—_

 _S~ Do it._

Star sensed unintelligible murmuring inside her head, but when it was done, she didn't notice anything different. The only confirmation that it had worked was the sudden disappearance of Gia and Ludo, and Tom's surprised shout of "Whoa! Where'd everyone go?"

"Right here," Star told him.

He jumped back from where Star had spoken. "Whoa… that's creepy. All right, just follow me, and try not to bump into anything."

They had made it most of the way to the elevator before the invisible Gia tripped over the invisible Ludo, resulting in a noisy but otherwise imperceptible scuffle.

Star and Tom froze, and Gia and Ludo quickly got to their feet. Just when they thought that no one had heard, King Lucitor came barreling around the corner, shouting, "I heard something! Who is that?" Then he saw Tom. "Oh, Tom! I'm so glad you're all right. I thought you had gone after Star!"

"Oh, nope, definitely didn't do that, just ah… you know. Wandering the castle. I'm going to the… er… bathroom, so I'll see you?

"But we _are_ going to have a talk about you disappearing like that."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Totally get it! I just _really_ have to go, so I'm just gonna… um, go."

Star thought that Tom hadn't been very convincing, but he had apparently fooled his father, since he let Tom walk past him.

"All right, let's just get there," Tom whispered to them, picking up his pace. They found the elevator without any more incidents. A gadget on the wall scanned Tom's face, and the doors opened. They all shuffled in.

"We need to go to the library," he said to seemingly no one.

Apparently the elevator heard him, because they began plunging downward. After dropping what felt like a mile, the elevator stopped abruptly, the doors opening with a _ding!_

"You can take off the invisibility spell," Tom told Star. With Eclipsa's begrudging help, Star released the spell. "Now," Tom continued, "let's get in and out as fast as we can, and be quiet. We don't want to wake Relicor."

He paused as he realized that Ludo hadn't appeared. He finally spotted the quasi-kappa darting across an aisle between the bookcases, pursued by a short, winged, screeching creature.

"Well, so much for not waking Relicor," Tom groaned. He chased after his great-grandfather. When he finally caught up to him, he saw Ludo cowering in a dead-end while Relicor fluttered toward the quasi-kappa menacingly. Tom jumped in front of Ludo just as his relative was about to attack. "Hey there, Great-Grandpa Relicor! Aren't you glad to see me? We were just looking around the library! Trying to figure out a way to remove a Medallion of Magic from a person possessed by it. Do you know where we could look?"

Relicor screeched, then fluttered over to another part of the library.

As Ludo, Gia, Star, and Tom followed, Tom explained, "Relicor says he knows the book we need. It's this way!"

Relicor took a book off a shelf and opened it, pointed to the page, then screeched once.

"Relicor says there's only three ways to forcibly remove the Medallion. One is to sever the Medallion's chain, which can only be done using a very sharp magical blade, such as the one you carry, Star. He says this would destroy the Medallion once and for all, but in so doing, it would destroy the wearer."

"Then that's out of the question," murmured Star.

"Wait," Gia interrupted, "he said all that in one screech?"

"Oh, he said way more than that," Tom continued. "He said the second way is to have some sort of connection to the person that enables you to touch the Medallion, such as the Blood Moon Bond."

"But now that's broken," Star reminded him.

"Right. Now for the third way… it's more of a way to _steal_ the Medallion, actually. He says if you kill the previous owner while he's still wearing it, then the Medallion's allegiance will shift to you, making it even more powerful in the process." Tom shivered as he recited it.

"Well, that's probably the least helpful one!" Ludo huffed.

But Star seemed to have an idea. "Maybe not," she decided after a while. "We can't use that method, but we know Toffee wants the Medallion for himself, right? So this _must_ be what he's after! It's the only way to get the Medallion without destroying it!"

"Wait, I feel like Toffee would have had plenty of opportunities to kill Marco if he had wanted to," Gia countered. "Like, after Star saved Tom and Toffee blasted her, couldn't Toffee have killed Marco then?"

"I don't know what happened after Toffee knocked me out."

All heads turned to Tom, but he reminded them that he had fainted after breaking through his chains. "When I came to, I heard magic blasting all around me, so I cut a portal and crawled through as fast as I can."

"So maybe they fought, but Marco overpowered him," Star suggested.

"But then why did Toffee send _you_ after Marco?" Ludo asked. "He can't have really expected you to kill Marco, did he?"

"No, and if I did, the Medallion would be mine, not his. I think he was actually relying on the fact that I wouldn't kill Marco; he just wanted me to incapacitate him."

"Then who didn't Toffee go after it himself?" someone asked.

Star was too deep in thought about her revelation that she wasn't even sure who had asked. It didn't matter; she had the answer. "If I incapacitated Marco, then _Agatenus_ could kill Marco himself. Remember, _he_ is the one who wants the Medallion! If Toffee killed Marco, the Medallion would transfer its allegiance to him. Toffee's too smart to get possessed by the Medallion, especially when he already has a wand shard to do magic with! So he needs to incapacitate Marco so Agatenus can kill him, then give Agatenus the Medallion, let him get possessed, and make off with that family heirloom thing so he can become super powerful!"

Tom nodded. "If so, Marco could be in trouble."

"And not just Marco," Ludo reminded them. "If Toffee gets his hands on the heirloom, we're all finished. He could have the multiverse at his mercy in a matter of months!"

"So, then, for Marco, and for the world!" Star exclaimed.

"The only question left is, where do we start?" wondered Gia.

Star grinned mischievously. "Luckily, I know exactly how to find their base."

* * *

 **A/N: Well, there it is! Hopefully I'll be able to get through the last two chapters in a reasonable amount of time. (I know I've said that a lot, but it's only two chapters; what could _possibly_ go wrong? :/ ) **

**Anyway, next chapter is "Toffee." Hope I can get that out soon!**


	15. Chapter 15- Toffee

**Chapter 15 is here! Fun fact: We just passed this story's two-year anniversary on August 20! It's hard to believe that I started on this Quest, so to say, over two years ago. It's taken a long time, but we're finally getting to the end. So, without further ado—**

 **Actually, one more thing. This chapter starts right where the last left off, so, in case you forgot, the last chapter ended like this:**

"If Toffee gets his hands on the heirloom, we're all finished. He could have the multiverse at his mercy in a matter of months!"

"So, then, for Marco, and for the world!" Star exclaimed.

"The only question left is, where do we start?" wondered Gia.

Star grinned mischievously. "Luckily, I know exactly how to find their base."

 **Now get reading! :)**

* * *

"Well, maybe I don't know _exactly_ how to find their base…" murmured Star as, back at their camp, Ludo pulled out a map of the multiverse.

"You don't know what dimension it's in?" questioned Ludo.

"I know it was in some desert-y place."

"Half the dimensions in the multiverse have deserts! That's not exactly narrowing it down!"

"Well, what can we eliminate?" wondered Gia.

"The Oceania dimension," Tom suggested. "It's nothing but water."

"It can't be in Mewni, or I would have recognized it," Star added.

Ludo sighed, flipping the map over and examining the tiny print that described the dimensions in more detail. "That's all good and well, but even if we eliminate fifty dimensions, there's still thousands more! Not to mention any uncharted dimensions!"

Star was in thought. "Gia? Couldn't you track Toffee's location back when we started?"  
"Oh right!" Gia closed her eyes and concentrated. But when she opened them again, all she said was, "His trace is very faint. All I know is that he's far. Very far."  
Ludo looked back down at the map again. "That still doesn't much help."

Then a little pearl-colored man popped out of the map. "Hello, I'm Indexus, in case you've forgotten. May I be of assistance?"  
"Wait, who's this?" Tom wondered. "I thought the blue Glossaryck guy lived in the book."

"Hmm, who's the newbie?"

"Oh, this is Tom, my half-demon ex-boyfriend," Star explained.

Indexus frowned. "Right, nice to meet you. To answer your question, Glossaryck didn't know what he was doing. He trapped me in this book, and I was only able to escape when he died."

Tom gasped. "Glossaryck _died_? How?"

"It's… a long story," Star told him.

"Anyway," Indexus continued, "that old fool could only tell you what the terms meant. I can _find_ terms! For example, I can search for the term 'desert' in the map."

"Well, do it!" Ludo snapped.  
"Already done. I found 1,059 mentions of 'desert' on the map. 967 of such instances are under different dimensions."  
"Right, now eliminate all dimensions bordering Mewni," Star ordered.

"That leaves 962 dimensions that match your results, including Beachtropolis, the Corinet Dimension, Dimension X-103, Dimen—"

"Not helping!" Ludo interrupted. "We need a different way to find this dimension."

"Ah, a wise decision. Someone must have the answer. But who will you ask?"

"Toffee has two brothers, Coffee and Taffy," Star suggested. "Maybe they know? They wouldn't tell willingly…"

"But how would we find them, much less make them talk?" Tom reminded her.

Gia shot a glance at Ludo, and the quasi-kappa blanched, already knowing what she would say before she said it. "What about your dad? Maybe your mom overheard something."

"Right. I guess we'll have to go back there."

"Are you okay, Ludo?" Star asked.

"Yeah, it's just… I've known that my dad hasn't been the best parent for a long time, but it's just weird to think that he's the one who's behind this all, causing all our problems. I can't help but feel partly responsible."

Star reached for Ludo's shoulder, before remembering that she couldn't reach his shoulder without squatting and making it awkward. Instead, she just said, "Ludo, we all know you're not responsible. You're working with us, and we trust you. And as for your dad, he's just another of Toffee's pawns—like I was. He can be _very_ persuasive, and I honestly don't really blame Lord Brudo for taking the bait. Toffee knows how to get into your head."

"I guess so…"

"Well, I _know_ so."

The others nodded in agreement.

"I… thank you, Star."

"Of course. Now, if I remember right, the Avarius house is this way."

They walked through the Forest of Certain Death for a while without incident, but then Star heard something rustling in the bushes and stopped.

"What is it?" Gia asked fearfully.

"I'm not sure. Just don't move." Star lifted her sword and inched forward slowly. Something jumped out at her, and she swung her sword, cutting it clean in half. But she paled when she saw what she had just cut through.

"That's a revengerat!" Tom shouted. "RUN!"

So they ran. But as they did, rats appeared from the underbrush and started chasing them, multiplying by the second until there were thousands of them. They gnashed their teeth and trained their beady eyes on Star. Just as they were about to overcome her, she heard Eclipsa's voice in her head: _Star, JUMP!_

She suddenly remembered the sword in her hand, and how she had used it to jump long distances back in Uni. **(A/N: I know now that Pony Head actually lives in the Cloud Kingdom on dimension Mewni, but I'm going for consistency here.)**

"Fly!" Star shouted, and her sword pulled her forward to land about a hundred feet away. The revengerats paid Star's friends no mind, scuttling past them to reach the girl who had killed one from their pack. Soon, the wave of rats, now growing in height, passed over her friends, blocking them from Star's view. But they were gaining on Star quickly, and without momentum, Star wasn't sure she would be able to make another jump. She started to turn and run, but before she could, the wall of rats froze. Star wasn't sure what was happening until the rats closest to her caught on fire. All the rats quickly disintegrated into nothing but a huge pile of ash. A regular fire couldn't have done that, but that wasn't a regular fire.

Tom stood with his arm outstretched, his eyes slowly fading from red back to normal as the last of the fire fizzled out. Then he took a step back. "Whoa… that just happened."

"No time, let's go!" Ludo shouted. "If there's any left, they'll be after Tom in a few seconds!"

So they all put their heads down and ran, not looking back until they arrived at the place Star had only left less than a day ago, though it felt like much more time had passed.

When she knocked, a quavering voice inside demanded, "Who is it this time?"

"It's Star. And some friends."

The door opened. "Well then, come…" Lady Avarius trailed off when she saw Ludo. "I thought you were still in your bedroom!"

"It's a long story, but we need to ask you something important."

She ushered them inside and had them sit down in the living room. Ludo's siblings were running all over the place, but Ludo tried to ignore them. He leaned toward his mother and said in a voice just barely above a whisper, "We were hoping you might know what dimension Father is hiding in. We're looking for him."

Lady Avarius seemed conflicted for a moment. Then, she finally said, "During one of his conversations with Toffee… I heard him say something like 'Zygdrazila.' **(Pronounced zig-DRAZ-ih-luh.)** I do not know if that is where he is hiding. I do not even know if it is a dimension at all. But, Ludo…" Lady Avarius met Ludo's eyes for the first time since she had started speaking. "Please don't hurt your father. I know he's done some things, but… he doesn't know what he's doing."

Ludo's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, yeah. C'mon guys, let's go."

He got up and was halfway to the door before Lady Avarius cried, "Ludo, wait!"

He didn't stop, and his friends had no choice but to follow him out the door.

"Be safe…" Lady Avarius murmured, but Ludo didn't hear—the door had already slammed shut behind him.

"Okay, let's get to Zygdrazila," Ludo said tersely, cutting a portal and stepping through. Again, Tom, Gia, and Star jumped through after him.

As soon as they landed, Star turned on Ludo. "What was all of that for?"

He snorted. "I don't know why, but for a while I thought she might be different than what I remembered. Different… from when my dad was around. But no, she's the same selfish self she's always been. No 'Good luck, Ludo,' no 'I love you, Ludo,' no 'I hope you come back safely, Ludo"! She's only worried about her _precious husband_ who's trying to kill us all! She's no better than Father."

Star approached Ludo carefully. "I'm sorry you feel that way, Ludo, but… that's not what I saw. I saw that she cared for you."

"Yeah, right."

"I'd know," Star insisted. "Don't make the same mistake I made. Don't push her away like I did to you. How I did to all of you, really." She sighed.

Ludo stood stock-still, staring unseeingly into the space to Star's left. Staring at nothing, but seeing everything. He stood there for a very long time but still hadn't come to a conclusion when he muttered, "Let's just get on with this."

Star took in their surroundings for the first time.

They were in a rainforest, with tall trees that blocked the sun out almost completely. Behind her was a lump of gray stone about the size of the Diaz house—just the thought of her former residence made Star cringe. A river wound into a hole in the rock that appeared to extend into a cave.

Otherwise, it was just the trees, and the permeating shadow that made it feel like dusk. Despite the shade, Star noticed that it was hot. It was a humid, muggy heat that felt like it was sinking into her bones. Star realized that the only other time she had felt this powerful of heat, it had been when Toffee had taken her into the desert; it had just been much drier. Maybe they were in an oasis. If so, the desert probably wasn't far away.

She was interrupted from her musings when Gia whispered, "What was that?"

Star hadn't heard anything, but she listened. After a moment, she heard a faint rustling in the bushes. A moment later, she caught a glance of a lizard tail.

"Into the cave!" Star shouted. She desperately hoped that said cave wasn't the home of a terrifying monster as they all rushed into it. Apparently her pleas had been heard, because the cave seemed empty as they entered into the darkness.

Star then turned back to the semicircle of light where they had entered from. _Eclipsa!_ she mentally shouted. _I need a spell to seal the cave!_

 _Hmm?_ the former queen replied.

 _S~ Seal the cave!_

Star had just enough time to raise her sword before a purple blast erupted from it. The ball of magic surged forward until it reached the opening of the cave, where it stopped and just hovered there. Then it began to expand and harden until all the light was gone. She felt where the opening had been. There were no cracks or seams, and the rock's texture felt the same as the rest of the cave. She couldn't see anything in the permeating darkness, so she could only hope that the color matched too. Behind her, there was a sound of scuffling, and Ludo shrieked, "Hey! Who was that?"

"Shh!" Gia interrupted.

After a moment, Ludo protested, "I don't hear anything."

" _Shut it!_ " Gia hissed.

Now Star could hear the voices outside. She was surprised to hear that the voices, while definitely reptilian, were not Toffee's. For one, there were two of them, and the one's pitch was too high while the other's was too low. But they still felt familiar somehow…

"Coffee and Taffy," Star breathed.

"What?" Tom whispered in response from somewhere to Star's right.

"Toffee's brothers. They're working with him. I think he made some sort of deal—"

"Will you all _shut up_!" repeated Gia.

"Right," Star whispered, turning to listen.

The higher-pitched one—Star was pretty sure that one was Taffy—was saying, "but the tracker says she's right around here."

The other scoffed. "She's obviously not here. Let's just go back."

"You know Toffee won't be happy if we come back without her."

The one Star assumed to be Coffee responded grumpily, "And why do I care how Toffee feels about anything?"

"You know… the wand!"

Hm. So Toffee had promised the wand to three different people. She's finally found Toffee's weakness: his entire team was built on deception.

Now Coffee was speaking again. "Fine. We'll look for fifteen more minutes. But seriously, what was the point of sending me out to plant a tracker on the girl if it's not even going to be accurate?"

As their voices grew distant, Star's eyes grew wide. "Let's get farther back in the cave. Then we can talk without risk of being heard."

They all shuffled farther into the cave, blindly following the sound of the stream. They eventually came to a dead end, where they huddled around each other. Once they were settled, Star began, "Remember Mocha, from back on Venezala?"  
"No," said Tom's voice.

"Ugh, there's no time to explain. But, it turns out he was actually one of Toffee's brothers, sent as a spy, I guess. I've been wondering why he was sent to find us, and I guess he put a tracker on me somehow."

 _A tracker, hm?_ mused Eclipsa's voice in her head.

 _It could be hidden anywhere on me though, and it's probably small. How do I find it?_ Star asked her.

Eclipsa took a moment to think. Finally, she suggested, _If it's a magical tracker, you might be able to sense and pinpoint it, like you did with the sword back when you escaped with it. Oh, you would probably need to move the sword away from you so that it doesn't interfere with your sensing._

 _S~ Okay. Let's try it._

Then, out loud, she said, "Can somebody take my sword, please?"

For a moment, no one responded. Then Gia finally replied, "Umm, Star? What just happened? You went all silent, and you weren't responding to us!"

"Oh, I was just talking to Eclipsa." Star explained Eclipsa's suggestion. "So could someone take this and walk away?"

Tom volunteered. He took the sword and walked back toward the entrance with hit until his footsteps could no longer be heard.

Star squeezed her eyes shut, even though she couldn't see anything anyway, and concentrated on the pulse she had felt from the sword back in Toffee's lair. After a few moments, she felt it—a faint buzzing in the back of her mind—which she followed back to its source. She fingered the back of her collar, but there was nothing there but fabric.

 _Try a bit higher_ , Eclipsa supplied.

Star ran her fingers along the nape of her neck, giving a start when she felt a bump behind her left ear. She yanked it off.

"I got it!" she exclaimed.

"Great, now get rid of it!" Ludo said.

"Hmm," murmured Star. She traced her finger along the tracker. It was about the width of an Earth dime, and about as thick as one too. One side was adhesive, and the other was smooth. But as she felt it, she found the outline of a button and pressed it. The buzzing in the back of her mind stopped. "I think I deactivated it."

"Why don't we just crush it?" Ludo asked.

Star tucked it into a pocket. "I have a feeling it might be useful to us."

"We should probably go check on Tom," Gia suggested.

"Oh, right." In the dark, Star had almost forgotten that Tom wasn't there.

They all stumbled back toward the entrance, but when they got there, it was unsealed, blinding them with the light from outside. "No…" Star murmured, "when I let go of the sword, the spell must have worn off!"

"But then, where's Tom?" asked Gia, although she already knew the answer.

The answer lingered suffocatingly in the air around them, and in the end, it was Star who finally whispered, "He's gone."

* * *

Star was outside the cave, pacing back and forth across its entrance. Eventually she stopped. "Toffee's probably got him…. Okay, but our plan doesn't change, right? We still have to raid Toffee's base. We just have two people to find now, instead of one."

"Yeah, but how are we going to find—"

"Shut it!" Gia interrupted.

"Again?" Ludo whined.

But sure enough, there was a rustling in the bushes, followed by Taffy's voice saying, "It is this way, isn't it?"

"I don't know; you said you knew!" complained Coffee's voice.  
Turning to her friends, Gia whispered, "Let's follow them!"

 _Eclipsa, that invisibility spell would be useful right about now!_ Star thought desperately.

To her surprise, Eclipsa responded immediately, Ludo and Gia disappearing on either side of her. Star started forward tentatively, afraid to make noise or bump into one of her comrades, but Toffee's brothers were disappearing among the trees already, so she had no choice but to pick up her pace until she was jogging. She wove between the trees, ducking under vines, leaping over exposed roots, and dodging around low-hanging branches until the lizards came back into view. When she got closer, she could see Tom's unconscious body tossed over one of the lizard's shoulders—she thought it might be Coffee, but she couldn't be sure at this distance.

Star jumped and nearly gave them away by screaming when Ludo's voice came from her right: "Hey!"

" _What_?"

"Why don't we just surprise-attack them? We can take them easily and get Tom back!"

"We need them to lead us back to the base."

"I thought you said you knew where to find this place!"

"Finding it is one thing. Getting in is another. Toffee undoubtedly has some security measures. We'll need the brothers to lead us past them. Even then, we might trigger an alarm."

"That, and you don't know where you're going."

"Yeah, maybe a bit of that too," Star admitted.

Star jumped again when Gia, from her left, hissed, "WILL YOU FREAKING—"

About fifty feet ahead, lizard who wasn't holding Tom turned around. "Coffee, did you just hear something?"

Star, Ludo and Gia stood stock-still, barely daring to breathe.

Coffee, who had Tom draped over his shoulder, turned his head and stared straight at the invisible trio, then shrugged. "Probably just the half-demon boy."

"I don't think so," Taffy persisted.

"What, are you gonna argue with me? He's hanging over _my_ shoulder!"

Taffy stole one last glance backward, then sighed and continued on.

"That was close," Star breathed.

" _Too_ close," Gia added. "What part of _stealth_ do you two not get?"

"Oh, _please_!" retorted Ludo. " _You_ were the one who gave us away!"

Star stepped between them—though the effect was probably reduced given that she was invisible. " _No one_ gave us away! They didn't catch us. No harm, no foul. Now let's get going before we lose sight of them again."

They followed the two lizard brothers until the trees fell away into desert.

The red sun overhead, no longer obscured from view, burned so hot that Star could feel its heat searing her skin. It was a barren desert as far as the eye could see but for a lone, spineless saguaro cactus.

"This is the place," Star whispered, more to herself than anyone else.

"Oh, _now_ you know where we are!" Ludo huffed in exasperation.

Star heard Gia draw a breath, but before she could say anything, Ludo added, "Yeah, Gia, I know. I'll shut up."

Star looked up at the brothers, who were now approaching the cactus. "C'mon, we gotta catch up with them!"

They made it just as the wide disc they were all standing on started retracting into the ground. Star couldn't see Ludo's and Gia's reactions, but she presumed that they would be similar to her reaction the first time she had entered Toffee's base.

No. They wouldn't be. Last time she had been misled—Toffee had exploited her lack of confidence, and she had thought that things might be better here. But this time, she was coming to tear it all down.

To tear down her past.

They stopped sinking. The lizard brothers passed through an opening in the steel wall that faced them. Star followed them through, but when she glanced back, Gia and Ludo were visible again. They looked confused, but neither dared to speak.

 _Eclipsa!_ Star mentally shouted. _What happened to the invisibility?_

 _I was just looking into that, actually,_ the Dark Queen responded. _I've tried putting it back up three times already. My guess is that Toffee put up some sort of anti-magic field. You won't be able to perform any magic in here until the spell is broken._

 _S~ And how do I do that?_

 _E~ Spells like this require constant concentration. Break that concentration, and the spell comes down._

 _S~ So we just have to break his concentration? Easy!_

 _E~ Yes, but remember that you must do so_ without _magic._

Star frowned. _Oh, right._

She felt someone tugging her arm and snapped back to consciousness. It was Ludo. And now she noticed why he was pulling her: the brothers were nowhere to be seen.

They came to a fork in the hallway. "Right or left?" Ludo whispered.

Gia frowned for a moment, thinking. "Left," she decided, and Ludo and Star followed her down that hallway at a sprint. Star could just make out Coffee and Taffy up ahead. They were standing in front of a door, and Coffee was pressing his hand against a pad. The pad flashed green, and the door retracted into the wall.

"He's through that door," Gia grunted. "I can feel it."

Star felt it too. She might not have the tracking sixth sense that Gia had, but she could feel in the marrow of her bones that Toffee, Agatenus, and Marco were in there. That it all came down to this moment right here.

Right here, right now, they were going to beat Toffee, once and for all.

But the door was closing already.

"We're not going to make it!" lamented Ludo.

They all had that same thought, but they still barrelled toward the door, crashing through just in time and sending themselves, Coffee, Taffy, and Tom sprawling. They ended up on the floor in a heap.

Star had hoped that their unexpected entrance alone might break Toffee's concentration, but before Star could even pick herself up, she heard Toffee's cold, even voice:

"I've been expecting you three."

* * *

 **A/N: So… yeah, that's it! This chapter was supposed the include the Toffee battle, but I decided to cut it short for a few reasons. For one, I realized that I didn't actually have enough content for a full 16th chapter with my previous plan. I also want it to be a fairly long chapter, since, you know, it's the last one. Secondly, I'm simultaneously working on the second part of the mid-season finale for** _ **Star and Amalia vs. the Forces of Darkness**_ **(see my profile for link and details!), and I'm behind on it, so getting this chapter out gets that chapter out sooner too! And finally, that was just the perfect place to end it, don't you agree? I can't resist a good cliffhanger! On the plus side, it'll be more motivation for me to write 16! Oh, and just to confirm, chapter 16 is STILL going to be the last chapter, other than the epilogue, which I may or may not end up including at this point. I probably will, but I'll need to see how the last chapter goes! If I can wrap it all up in that chapter, I might just combine the epilogue into it.**

 **Anyway, enough rambling! The next chapter will be titled "** The Final Showdown" **! See you there!**

 **P.S. I want to just say a big thank you to everyone who had followed this story to its end! It's been a rocky road, but it's finally happening!**

 **More specifically:**

 **Thank you, Star's Keyblade4114, for always reading and giving me motivation to continue on! I really appreciate that you stuck by me all the way until the end! It's been a long journey, and you've been here supporting me through it all!**

 **Thank you, robertkellett, for all your encouragement, suggestions, and criticisms at the beginning. You may not be here to see the end product (or this dedication! :P), but this story really could never have become what it is now without his guidance! Best of wishes to you!**

 **Thank you, Oracle6044. You may not have made it to the end either, but all your reviews and encouragement really helped me keep going through it all.**

 **Thank you starco4everr and minecrafterngt. Without the little nudges of encouragement you gave me, I may never have finished this story.**

 **And a final thank you to all my other reviewers, my favoriters, my followers, and everyone who has read this story! In this case, I really couldn't have done it without you all!**

 **See you in September or October for the finale! ^_^**


End file.
